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4 4 


NOW let’s play it’s a real party.” 


A YANKEE GIRL 
AT 

SHILOH 


By 

Alice Turner Curtis / 

w 

Author of 


The Little Maid’s Historical Series, “A Yankee Girl at Fort 
Sumpter,” ‘‘A Yankee Girl at Bull Run,’’ etc. 



/ 7 

Illustrated by ISABEL W. CALEY * 


THE PENN PUBLISHING 
COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 
1922 



COPYRIGHT 
1922 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



A Yankee Girl at Shiloh 



Made in the U. S. A. 


NOV 28 72 

© C1A692097 


Introduction 


Mrs. Curtis in the two other books of this set, 
“A Yankee Girl at Fort Sumter ” and “A Yan- 
kee Girl at Bull Run,” has told delightful stories 
of little Northern heroines at these great battles. 

In this present story Berenice Arnold with her 
mother and father came from Vermont to the 
mountains of Tennessee in order that Mr. Ar- 
nold might regain his health. During the second 
winter of their stay the Armies of the North and 
the South began to draw closer to Shiloh, which 
was not far from the Arnold cabin. Berry had 
many exciting adventures. She found a young 
runaway slave-girl, who was sheltered by her 
parents and proved a devoted friend. She was 
mistaken for a boy by a Southern spy because of 
the fact that she wore blue corduroy knicker- 
bockers. He tried to force her to bear secret 
messages to his Commander, hut Berry, braving 
his anger and the misunderstandings in the 
Northern camp, managed to give military infor- 
3 


4 


INTRODUCTION 


mation to the Northern Army, which enabled it 
to gain a complete victory. Her deed was so 
splendid that General Grant himself visited the 
Arnold cabin to dine with Berry and thank her 
personally. 


Contents 


I. 

“ Berry ” .... 


, 

9 

II. 

Mollie Bragg . 



21 

III. 

School .... 



38 

IV. 

A Cabin Party . 



50 

V. 

Lily 



58 

VI. 

Secrets .... 



67 

VII. 

A Surprise 



77 

VIII. 

Lily’s Story 



86 

IX. 

The Witch’s Tree . 



96 

X. 

Berry in Danger 



106 

XI. 

The Midnight Adventure 



118 

XII. 

Orson’s Mistake 



127 

XIII. 

Berry Receives a Message 



135 

XIV. 

On Guard .... 



149 

XV. 

Soldiers on Shiloh Ridge 



169 

XVI. 

Berry is Taken Prisoner 



177 

XVII. 

The Evening Before Shiloh 



185 

XVIII. 

After the Battle . 



194 

XIX. 

General Grant 

9 


204 






















* 













Illustrations 


PAGE 

u Now Let’s Play It’s a Eeal Party v . . Frontispiece 

Without a Word Berry Pointed to the Heavy Bock 119 

“ Here Is the Little Messenger of Whom I Told 

You ” 209 


A Yankee Girl at Shiloh 


























♦ 




% 

















A Yankee Girl at Shiloh 


CHAPTER I 


There had been a light fall of snow during 
the night, and the tall oak trees that grew near 
the Arnolds’ log cabin, which stood on the slope 
of a wooded ridge overlooking the Tennessee 
River, were still sprinkled with clinging white 
flakes when the heavy door of the cabin was 
pushed open and a slender little figure appeared 
on the rough porch. 

If a stranger had been passing along the trail 
that led near this secluded cabin he would per- 
haps have decided that it was a boy who darted 
out and jumped up and down exclaiming, 
“ Snow! Snow! Just like Vermont snow! ” for 
the curling brown hair was cut short, and the 
blue flannel blouse, the baggy knickerbockers of 
blue corduroy, as well as the stout leather shoes, 
were all in keeping as a suitable costume for a 
ten-year-old lad whose home was a log cabin in 
9 


10 


A YANKEE GIRL 


the rough region on the westerly bank of the 
Tennessee River, over two hundred miles from 
its mouth. And when some casual stranger, fail- 
ing to see the blue corduroys, so mistook Bere- 
nice Arnold, and called her “ my lad,” she was 
very well pleased. 

On this January morning, in 1862 , Berenice 
had been awakened at an unusually early hour by 
a call from her father, telling her to dress quickly 
and hasten down in time to see the snow, that lay 
like a white veil over the wooded slopes, before 
the sun came out from behind the distant moun- 
tains and swept it away. 

“ Snow! Berry! Not enough for a sleigh 
ride, but enough to make you think of Ver- 
mont,” he had called, as if announcing an unex- 
pected delight. For the Arnolds had only lived 
in Tennessee for two years. Berry was nine 
years old when, with her father and mother and 
her older brother Francis, she had left the big 
white house in the pleasant Vermont village near 
Montpelier and come to this hillside cabin where 
Mr. Arnold hoped to regain something of his 
former health and strength. This was the sec- 
ond winter, and this fall of snow in early Janu- 
ary was the first real snowfall since their arrival. 


AT SHILOH 


11 


There had been many “ flurries,” but, until this 
January morning, not enough had fallen to 
whiten wood and trail; and the Arnolds ran to 
door and windows exclaiming over the new 
beauty of the slopes and forest beneath their 
white coverlets. 

“ What would Francis say to this? ” exclaimed 
Berry, as her father came out and stood beside 
her. 

Francis was now a soldier, with the Northern 
forces in Virginia, and Berry’s thoughts were 
often with her brother; wondering why he had 
been so determined, a year ago, to return to Ver- 
mont and enlist in a Northern regiment in the 
conflict to prevent the Southern States from 
leaving the Union, and to bring an end to the 
slavery of the negroes in America. Francis had 
been only eighteen when he had become a soldier, 
and Berry knew that her father and mother had 
both been willing that he should go. The little 
girl had often puzzled about it, for she had heard 
her father say that when Abraham Lincoln be- 
came President the United States would soon 
understand each other and all the talk of war 
would come to an end. But even Mr. Lincoln 
had not been able to avert the conflict; and the 


12 


A YANKEE GIRL 

hillside cabin, ten miles distant from the flourish- 
ing town of Corinth, was shadowed by the news 
of far-off battles. 

“ You must write Francis about it,” responded 
Berry’s father; “ tell him the slope is as white as 
the main street at home in Vermont in midwin- 
ter.” And Berry nodded smilingly. 

“ It will be gone before noon, so we can go 
out to the river road, and see what the mail- 
rider left for us yesterday,” continued Mr. 
Arnold. 

“ And, if ’tis not too muddy, can we not walk 
as far as Lick Creek and try for fish?” asked 
Berry, her brown eyes shining with eagerness at 
the thought of a long tramp with her father 
through the winter woods, and, best of all, the 
fun of catching a pickerel or bass from the waters 
of Lick Creek. For, in the two years that Berry 
had lived on this remote mountain slope, she had 
been her father’s constant companion in his out- 
of-door life, and it was for that reason that her 
mother had decided to dress the little girl in 
suitable clothing. If Berry had been obliged to 
wear dainty clothes, if her hair had been long and 
hung down her back in curls or braids, and her 
feet covered only by thin kid shoes, she would 


AT SHILOH 


13 


never have known every nook and crevice along 
the table-land, rolling and ridgy, a few miles 
above Pittsburg Landing, a place that was to be- 
come an historic spot. 

“ No fishing to-day,” her father declared; and, 
as at that moment Mrs. Arnold called them to 
breakfast, he did not add that he intended going 
in the opposite direction that morning to visit the 
rude log chapel known as Shiloh church, where 
Sunday services were occasionally held, and 
where Mr. Arnold now and then busied himself 
in repairing windows, painting the outer door, 
and doing such light work as his strength was 
equal to, in improving the condition of the neg- 
lected building. Berry was of great assistance 
to her father in this work; he had taught her how 
to use a plane, and smooth off a piece of wood 
until it was fit for use. She knew the names and 
use of all the tools he used about his carpentering 
work; and as a trip to Shiloh church meant a pic- 
nic dinner cooked in the open air, Berry was 
always well pleased when her father set off in 
that direction; and on hearing that he intended 
to start as soon as the sun was well up she quite 
forgot her plan to visit Lick Creek. 

Berry helped her mother clear the table and 


14 A YANKEE GIRL 

wash the dishes while her father selected the few 
tools he would need, and also packed a small bas- 
ket with food for their midday meal; and when 
he called “All ready for the trail,” Berry slipped 
on her brown corduroy jacket and her knitted 
cap of scarlet wool and was ready to start. 

“ If there is a letter from Francis in the mail- 
box I will bring it home as fast as I can, Mother,” 
she promised, as Mrs. Arnold stood on the porch 
to watch them start. 

“ We will be home before sunset,” Mr. Arnold 
promised, and followed Berry, who was running 
down the trail. 

Mrs. Arnold stood looking after them for a 
moment, smiling at Berry’s delight in starting 
off for a day in the woods, and thinking grate- 
fully of her husband’s improvement in health. 
Their cabin was several miles from any neigh- 
bors, and Mrs. Arnold had in the first months of 
their stay often been homesick for the friends 
and home she had left so far away among the 
peaceful hills of Vermont. But gradually the 
peace and quiet of their simple life in the hillside 
cabin, Berry’s happiness in playing out-of-doors, 
and, best of all, the improvement in Mr. Arnold’s 
health, reconciled her to the exile from New 


AT SHILOH 


15 


England. Often she accompanied her husband 
and Berry on their excursions, but this morning 
she intended writing a long letter to her soldier 
son. 

Before Berry and her father reached the mail- 
box, that was fastened to a stout oak tree on the 
highway, the veil of snow had nearly disap- 
peared, and the piles of brown leaves along the 
trail glistened in the morning sun. There was 
nothing in the box, and Mr. Arnold and Berry 
turned back into a path that would lead them 
direct to Shiloh church. A flock of blue jays 
started up from the underbrush and went scold- 
ing and screaming into the branches of a tall 
chestnut tree, their blue feathers and crested 
heads catching the sunlight and brightening the 
shadowy path. Berry gazed after them wonder- 
ingly. “ I do think it’s a pity they squawk so,” 
she said thoughtfully, “ when they are so lovely 
to look at. And the mocking-birds are so plain 
and gray.” 

Berry had become familiar with the birds who 
nested near the woodland cabin, and had learned 
much about their ways. She knew that the 
handsome jay was a thief who ate the eggs from 
the nests of other birds and sometimes even de- 


16 


A YANKEE GIRL 


stroyed the birds. She knew where the fine car- 
dinal in his scarlet coat, and Madam Cardinal in 
her more modest colors, made their nest in the 
underbrush along the banks of the ravine; and 
the tiny wrens who fluttered about the trail were 
her friends. But, best of all, Berry loved the 
mocking-birds, with their musical trills and clear 
song. Even in January they could be heard 
near the cabin; not with their springtime song, 
but with soft notes and hopeful calls. The little 
girl often put bits of bread and cake on the porch 
rail, and it was not long before the birds had dis- 
covered this unexpected bounty and came flut- 
tering down to look for it; and gradually the 
family had all made friends among their bird 
neighbors, giving them names, and keeping a 
sharp outlook for the young birds who were 
their springtime visitors. 

“ What are you going to do to-day, Father? ” 
Berry questioned as they came in sight of 
the log building that stood on the crest of the 
ridge. 

“ I am going to fix the benches. Some of 
them are dropping to pieces,” responded her fa- 
ther. “ I have a good store of fine oak wood dry 
and ready for use in the shed near the church, 


AT SHILOH 17 

and we can soon make the old seats as good as 
new.” 

“And may I put the new rail on the pulpit? I 
have polished it until it shines like glass,” said 
Berry, as they came out into the little clearing in 
which the church stood. 

“ Of course,” her father agreed, smiling down 
at his little daughter’s eager face. He was well 
pleased that Berry found pleasure in the outdoor 
life, that she was learning to do many things that 
little girls seldom have an opportunity to learn, 
and that she was as active and healthy as it was 
possible for a girl to be. 

Before beginning the work he had planned 
Mr. Arnold stood looking at the wild country 
spread out before him. “ Look, Berry,” he said, 
pointing to a ravine on the left, along which ran 
the main road to Corinth. “ This spot is like a 
picture in a frame,” he continued, “ the little 
streams of Owl Creek and Lick Creek, the road 
to Corinth, and the Tennessee River making the 
frame. It would make a safe camp for an 
army,” he added thoughtfully, but without an 
idea that within three months that very spot 
would be the scene of one of the most important 
battles of the Civil War; or that his little daugh- 


18 


A YANKEE GIRL 


ter who stood so quietly beside him would, by 
her courage and endurance, have rendered a 
great service to the cause of the Northern 
forces. 

They had walked a long distance, and seated 
themselves on the broad step of the chapel for a 
rest. 

“It is nearly noon ; I’ll start our fire and get 
lunch under way,” said Mr. Arnold. But Berry 
was eager to do this; for she knew exactly how 
to lay a fire in the open ; how to bake potatoes in 
hot ashes, and to broil bacon over the coals ; and 
to set the tin pail, in which they made coffee, 
where it would boil slowly. 

“ All right,” agreed Mr. Arnold, “ I’ll fetch 
the wood.” 

Berry ran along the ridge to where a granite 
ledge made a good shelter for a blaze, and in a 
short time a little curl of smoke crept into the air, 
and the appetizing odor of broiling bacon and of 
fragrant coffee made Mr. Arnold declare that he 
was “ hungry as a bear,” greatly to Berry’s de- 
light. 

“ Wouldn’t it be splendid if Francis was 
here? ” she said, as she and her father began their 
luncheon. 


AT SHILOH 


19 


“ Not much hope of seeing Francis this win- 
ter,” replied Mr. Arnold. 

“ I hate war! ” Berry declared, breaking open 
a well-baked potato, and proceeding to sprinkle 
salt on it. “ If it were not for war Francis would 
be here this minute.” 

“ No; Francis would be in college,” her father 
rejoined. 

“ What’s college? ” Berry demanded. 

“Why, Berenice Isabel Arnold!” exclaimed 
her father in amazement. “ I will have to turn 
schoolmaster and keep you shut in the house with 
books if you really do not know the meaning of 
‘college’!” 

Berry shook her head: her mouth was filled 
with hot potato, and she could not speak. 

“ College is a school where young men like 
Francis learn more important things than can be 
taught to younger boys,” explained her father. 
“ And I have made up my mind, Berry; to-mor- 
row your regular lessons begin.” 

“ Oh, Father! Not like the school at home? ” 
Berry pleaded. “ Not geography and maps, and 
arithmetic and sums, and grammar and compo- 
sitions? ” 

“ Exactly ! It will never do for a little Yankee 


20 


A YANKEE GIRL 


girl, even if she does live in Tennessee, to grow 
up without an education. School will begin to- 
morrow! ” replied Mr. Arnold. 

“ Then Mollie Bragg will have to go to school 
with me,” Berry declared. 


CHAPTER II 


MOLLIE BRAGG 

The nearest neighbors to the Arnolds were a 
family named Bragg, who lived in a cabin some 
three miles distant, near the road leading to 
Corinth. The Braggs’ cabin was not a comfort- 
able, convenient home such as the Arnolds had 
made their own mountain cabin. The doors of 
the Braggs’ cabin sagged from clumsy leather 
hinges; the floor of the rough porch was broken 
here and there, so that anyone entering the house 
had to be careful where he stepped. Mr. Bragg 
announced each day that he was “ gwine ter try 
mighty hard to find time to fix that po’ch, an’ 
mend up the roof.” But days, weeks, and 
months went by and no repairs were made, al- 
though Mr. Bragg spent long hours on the 
porch, tilted back against the house in an old 
chair, smoking, and, as he would promptly ex- 
plain to any visitor, “ trvin’ to rest up.” 

Indoors Mrs. Bragg swept and scoured, 
mended the poor garments of her family, and 
21 


22 


A YANKEE GIRL 

tried her best to make the rough place pleasant 
for her children. Mollie Bragg, the youngest of 
the family, was a little girl about the age of 
Berenice Arnold, but not as tall or strongly built 
as Berry. Mollie’s eyes were a pale blue, her 
hair, which hung straight about her thin little 
face, was a pale yellow, and her arms and legs 
were so thin that Berry sometimes wondered that 
they did not break as Mollie ran down the rough 
mountain paths, or valiantly followed Berry in 
climbing a tall tree to peer into the nest of a 
robin or yellowhammer. Mollie’s elder sister 
had left home, the year the Arnolds came to 
Tennessee, to live with an aunt in Nashville, and 
the only son, a lad of sixteen, had run away to 
join the army of the Confederacy, so that in 
January, 1862, Mollie was the only child at 
home. 

Although the Arnold and Bragg cabins were 
three miles apart, hardly a day passed that 
Mollie and Berry did not see each other. Mollie 
would often set out early in the morning and 
appear at the Arnolds’ door before they had 
finished breakfast, to be eagerly welcomed by 
Berry, and urged to a seat at the round breakfast 
table near the big window that overlooked the 


AT SHILOH 


23 


ravine by Mrs. Arnold, and helped to the well- 
cooked porridge, followed by crisp bacon and 
toast, and often a dish of stewed fruit, all of 
which the little visitor evidently enjoyed. 

To Mollie the Arnolds’ cabin seemed the finest 
place in the world. Although it had only five 
rooms, and the family had their meals in the 
kitchen, it was indeed a pleasant and attractive 
home, with its muslin-curtained windows, its 
floors painted a shining yellow, with rag rugs 
here and there, the open fire in the sitting-room 
that blazed so cheerfully on winter days, the well- 
filled bookshelves in one corner and the stout 
wooden chairs and settles with their big feather- 
filled cushions. Mr. Arnold had spent a good 
part of his time in improving the cabin from the 
rough state in which they had found it, and had 
made most of the simple furniture. A vine-cov- 
ered fence enclosed the yard, where Berry had 
her own garden. Each spring she began by 
planting lettuce and radishes, and then peas and 
carrots and string beans; before these had time 
to sprout she had bordered her vegetable beds 
with spring flowers. Mollie learned many things 
from her new friends, and, in her turn, showed 
Berry where the wild trillium and Jack-in-the- 


24 


A YANKEE GIRL 


pulpit could be found, and where to look for the 
nests of cardinal and mocking-bird, birds that 
the little Yankee girl had never seen before com- 
ing to Tennessee. Therefore when Mr. Arnold 
declared that it was time for Berry to have regu- 
lar lessons, “ to begin school, 1 ” as he termed it, 
it was quite natural for Berry to say that Mollie 
Bragg would also have to study. 

There was no schoolhouse within miles of these 
mountain cabins where the little girls could “ be- 
gin school/’ and Berry understood that her fa- 
ther would be her teacher. And on the day after 
their excursion to Shiloh church Mr. Arnold 
told Berry that she could go to the Braggs’ cabin 
and ask Mollie to be her schoolmate. 

“ Tell her school begins at ten o’clock each 
morning and closes at twelve,” he said as Berry 
put on her cap and started toward the door. 

“ And say to Mrs. Bragg that we shall expect 
Mollie to stay for dinner,” added Mrs. Arnold, 
who realized that the Bragg family seldom had 
the kind of food that would nourish a delicate 
child like Mollie, and welcomed the opportunity 
to give her small neighbor one good meal each 
day. 

“ All right,” Berry called back, as she ran 


AT SHILOH 


25 


down the path, turning to wave her hand before 
the thick growing forest trees hid her from sight. 

Berry’s way led through the forest, across a 
wide brook that went dancing down over its 
rocky bed toward the river, and then the path 
turned into the highway near which was the 
rough clearing surrounding the Braggs’ cabin. 
A tiny gray bird called “ Chick-a-dee-dee-dee,” 
as if to greet the red-capped little figure that ran 
so swiftly along the rough path. Further on she 
heard the cheerful whistle of the cardinal, and 
stopped for a moment to look up into the wide- 
spreading branches of the big trees that towered 
above her, hoping for a glimpse of the red-coated 
songster, but he was not to be seen. 

The crossing of the wide brook meant stepping 
carefully from stone to stone until the middle 
of the stream was reached, where a broad flat 
rock gave a firm foothold, and from which Berry 
was accustomed to jump to the opposite bank. 
She made the passage skilfully, springing over the 
rushing water and landing on firm ground with 
the lightness and sure footing of an active boy; 
before she had taken a further step, however, a 
chuckling voice close at hand called: “ Well done, 
youngster! It takes a Tennessee lad to jump,” 


26 


A YANKEE GIRL 


and Berry found herself facing a tall man whose 
face was nearly covered by a brown beard, and 
whose brown eyes twinkled with amusement at 
her surprise. He wore a round, close-fitting cap 
of coonskin, a leather jacket, with stout trousers 
of corduroy and high boots. A hunter’s belt 
held a revolver and hunting-knife, and a knap- 
sack was strapped across his shoulders. It was 
seldom that Berry encountered anyone in her 
forest tramps, but she had been taught to believe 
in the friendliness of the mountain people, and 
smiled and nodded in response to the man’s greet- 
ing. 

“ I can jump farther than that,” she boasted. 
“ I can jump farther than most boys of my age.” 

The man nodded approvingly. “ Well, you 
ain’t so stocky as some,” he said thoughtfully. 
“ Guess your ma kind of likes to dress you up, 
don’t she, sonny? ” he continued, with an amused 
glance at Berry’s red silk tie and scarlet wool 
cap. 

Berry nodded. If this stranger mistook her 
for a boy she did not mean to undeceive him. 

“Well,” continued the man, “you can’t help 
that, my lad. What’s your name? ” 

“ Berry,” responded the little girl. 


AT SHILOH 


27 


“ Berry what? ” he continued. 

“ Berenice,” said Berry, thinking that now the 
stranger had discovered her secret, and that he 
would at once tell her that the place for little 
girls was at home, helping their mother, as Mr. 
Bragg so often announced. 

But the man evidently had not understood 
her. “ ‘ Nees,’ eh! Berry Nees. Well, you 
mountain folks have queer names. But I’m glad 
to make your acquaintance. I reckon you can 
run considerable as well as jump? ” 

“ Yes,” Berry replied quickly, well pleased 
that she need not hear that “ Girls should not be 
running wild in boys’ clothes,” as had sometimes 
been said to her. “ I can run faster than Len 
Bragg, who is sixteen years old.” 

“ Where does Len Bragg live? ” questioned 
the man. 

“ Oh! He’s in the war! He’s with General 
Johnston’s army,” replied Berry promptly. 

“That’s right!” declared the man approv- 
ingly. “ There’s not a finer man in the Confed- 
erate army than Albert Sidney Johnston.” 

Berry had heard her own father praise General 
Johnston’s character, so she was not surprised, 
and replied politely, “ Yes, sir.” 


28 


A YANKEE GIRL 

“ I’m bound for Corinth myself,” continued 
the man. “ I’ve journeyed across country from 
Fort Donelson, and I reckon I shan’t stop long 
at Corinth; like as not I may come back this 
way, long in the spring,” and the man smiled to 
himself as if well pleased with such a prospect. 
“ If I do, Berry, maybe I’ll want you to let me 
see if you can run as fast as you say. Maybe 
I’ll want you to take a message to Pittsburg 
Landing in a hurry for me.” And the man’s 
eyes rested sharply upon Berry. 

Before Berry could reply the man spoke again, 
and in a sharper tone than he had yet used. 

“ And see here, my lad! Don’t you let on to 
a living soul about having met me. Under- 
stand? ” and his hand touched the sheath of his 
hunting-knife in a threatening manner. But 
Berry did not wait to answer; she was off like a 
flash, not keeping to the path, but darting behind 
big trees, circling around underbrush and at last 
hiding behind a tall stump. She heard the man 
crashing along behind her, but Berry’s boast of 
being a swift runner was well proved; the woods- 
man could not overtake her. Berry smiled to 
herself as she heard him floundering about 
through the thickets. She was not at all afraid 


AT SHILOH 


29 


of being caught, for she knew all the forest ways, 
and many a hiding-place. She kept very quiet, 
however, and did not venture out from behind 
the stump until a hovering flock of nuthatches, 
who had been scolding vigorously at being dis- 
turbed, settled down in a near-by thicket. 

“ He’s gone,” she whispered, and stepped 
cautiously out; “ he didn’t come this way or the 
nuthatches would not have stopped flying.” 

Berry peered sharply about, however, as she 
made her way noiselessly from tree to tree, stop- 
ping often to listen for any sound that might 
mean she was being followed, but, except for the 
far-off call of woodland birds, the forest was 
quiet. Berry was sure the man had given up try- 
ing to find her, and hastened down the ridge to 
the Braggs’ cabin. She said nothing of her ad- 
venture to the Braggs, but told of her father’s 
plan for morning lessons. “ Mollie may come 
every day, may she not?” she pleaded; “ and 
Mother wants her to stay for dinners.” 

Mrs. Bragg’s anxious face had brightened as 
Berry spoke of lessons, and she answered 
quickly, “ I reckon prayers are answered, fer 
I’ve been a hopin’ and a prayin’ there’d be some 
chance for Mollie to get book-larnin’, but no 


30 


A YANKEE GIRL 

way seemed to open, and now your folks come 
along an’ want to teach her. Of course she can 
come, an’ mighty thankful fer the chanst,” and 
Mrs. Bragg wiped her faded eyes with the cor- 
ner of her worn apron, and managed to smile 
at Mollie, who was jumping up and down as if 
too happy to keep still. Mr. Bragg had started 
off to look after the traps he set along the river 
banks for muskrats, whose skins he sold to a 
trader in Corinth, so there was no argument 
about the “ foolishness of book-larnin’,” for Mr. 
Bragg often proudly announced that he “ never 
had no schoolin’, an’ never was any the wus’ fer 
it,” without any idea that his poverty and laziness 
had been caused by his ignorance. 

“ School begins to-morrow,” Berry added, “ at 
ten o’clock.” 

“ What will we learn to-morrow? ” Mollie 
asked eagerly, her pale blue eyes shining with 
delight. 

Berry shook her head. “ I don’t know. I ex- 
pect it will be a surprise. I don’t believe it will 
be like a real school,” she replied. 

Mollie’s smile vanished. To go to a “ real 
school ” seemed the finest thing in the world to 
the little mountain girl, who had not even known 


AT SHILOH 


31 


the letters of the alphabet until Berry had taught 
them to her, and who could now, at ten years 
of age, only read words of one syllable, and 
was just beginning to learn the meaning of 
figures. 

Berry was quick to notice the change in Mol- 
lie’s expression, and added, “ I mean we won’t 
sit behind little desks, and keep as quiet as mice, 
the way girls do in schools.” 

“ P’raps we will,” Mollie rejoined hopefully; 
“ p’raps I’ll learn writin’.” 

“ Of course you will,” Berry declared, and 
Mollie’s smile promptly reappeared. 

“ May I spin this morning? ” Berry asked, go- 
ing toward the big spinning-wheel that stood in 
one corner of the kitchen, on which Mrs. Bragg 
spun the yarn for the stockings worn by the 
family, and often permitted Berry to spin the 
soft fleecy rolls of wool into yarn. Berry always 
considered this permission a great privilege, and 
her father had promised to make a spinning- 
wheel for her. 

Usually Mrs. Bragg was quite ready to let 
Berry try her hand at the wheel, but this morn- 
ing she shook her head dolefully. 

“ The wheel’s give out,” she declared. “ Steve 


32 


A YANKEE GIRL 


promised to take a look at it, but land knows 
when he’ll get ’round to it.” 

Berry approached the big wheel and looked at 
it anxiQusly. “ What’s the matter with it? ” she 
asked. 

“ ’Twon’t move!” and to prove this Mrs. 
Bragg touched the rim of the wheel, that usually 
responded to the lightest touch, but now kept 
firm and steady. 

Berry had watched her father in his work with 
tools, had seen him oil hinges that would not 
move, or loosen nuts that held some wheel or 
bar too tightly, and she had been taught to do 
many things that most little girls never learn; 
so now she examined the wheel with so serious a 
face that Mrs. Bragg looked at her in amaze- 
ment. 

“ If I had a screw-driver and an oil-can I be- 
lieve I could fix it,” she declared. 

“ Fer the land’s sake! ” muttered Mrs. Bragg. 
“We never saw a screw-driver, but there’s 
a broken knife that’ll twist a screw mighty 
fine.” 

“ Perhaps that would do,” Berry responded 
gravely, and Mollie ran off to find the broken 
knife, while Berry peered under the wheel-bench 


AT SHILOH 


33 


to make sure that she understood the simple 
movement of the wheel. 

Mrs. Bragg watched Berry as the little girl 
carefully loosened and adjusted the axle on 
which the wheel turned, until it would move, but 
it did not move smoothly. 

“ It needs a drop of oil ! ” Berry announced. 

But the Bragg cabin could furnish nothing 
better than a bit of melted tallow, and Mrs. 
Bragg declared that far superior to oil, and 
hastened to prepare it, and at last, to the amaze- 
ment and delight of Mrs. Bragg and Mollie, and 
to Berry’s great satisfaction, the big wheel re- 
volved as swiftly as ever. 

“ I reckon you know ter do sich things, Berry, 
on account of being a Yankee girl,” Mrs. Bragg 
declared admiringly. “ Steve says folks up 
North prides theirselves on workin’, an’ on in- 
ventin’ ways ter make work. I declar’ to it, I’ll 
have ter rest a spell,” and Mrs. Bragg sank down 
on a wooden bench near the door. 

“ Maw, tell Berry that story you tole me ’bout 
the selfish mouse,” said Mollie. “ Maw kin tell 
gran’ stories, Berry,” the little girl continued 
eagerly. “ W’en we wus off up in the mountains 
she used ter tell a new one mos’ every night.” 


34 


A YANKEE GIRL 


Berry’s face brightened at the prospect of a 
story, and Mrs. Bragg said she would tell it as 
nearly as she could remember it. 

“ It’s ’bout a mouse that jes’ was set on gettin’ 
all he could fer hisself,” she explained. “This 
mouse lived with his mother an’ four brothers in a 
fine cabin whar thar was a big cupboard. Thar 
was cakes an’ cheese an’ nice white bread, an’ cold 
meat ; an’, like as not, thar was raisins an’ nuts in 
that thar cupboard. But the door was allers kep’ 
shut tight, an’ thar was a big white cat that, seem- 
ingly, was allers lurkin’ roun’ that pantry door. 
So Mother Mouse warned her children to be sat- 
isfied with the crumbs they could pick up ’roun’ 
the kitchen. But one day one of the little mice 
found that the door was open and he slipped in, 
an’ ’twa’n’t a minute afore that little mouse found 
a big round cheese an’ began to nibble it; an’ he 
was so busy and so happy that he didn’t hear the 
cupboard door shut, or notice that ’twas dark. 

“ Wal, Mother Mouse didn’t miss him fer a 
considerable spell, bein’ busy collectin’ grain jest 
outside the cabin. But when it began ter get 
dark she calls fer the young ones so’s to settle 
down fer the night, an’ she finds one of ’em don’ 
come. The first thing Mother Mouse thought of 


AT SHILOH 


35 


was the white cat, but the cat wasn’t anywhar 
ter be seen; so Mother Mouse goes all about the 
kitchen calling the missing mouse, an’ when she 
crept by the cupboard she heard a little bit of a 
squeak, and then she stopped mighty quick. She 
knew the little mouse was in that cupboard, an’ 
she prob’ly knew that thar war traps set in it. 
So she calls her fam’ly an’ then says she, ‘ Your 
brother is in thar, an’ we mus’ get him out. Now 
the folks have all gone to bed, an’ we’ll begin 
work.’ So she began to nibble at the edge of the 
door, and the little mice did their best to help her, 
and jes’ ’fore daylight there was a hole big 
enough for the little mouse to come through. 
But he wouldn’t come. Says he, 4 1 only 
squeaked so you’d know that I’m well fixed fer 
life,’ says he. 4 1 ain’ no need ever to gather 
kitchen crumbs again,’ he says, 4 an’ so you can 
all go your ways an’ ferget me.’ An’ he ran back 
to his cheese. Wal, at that very minute the 
woman of the house came into the kitchen to light 
up the fire, an’ she sees the mice. 4 My land ! ’ she 
calls out ; an’ off went Mother Mouse and all her 
family into a safe hiding-place. But the woman 
opened the cupboard door, and then she called, 
4 Puss, puss ! ’ an’ the big cat came running, an’ 


36 


A YANKEE GIRL 

into the pantry she sprung an’ the little mouse, 
who had felt so grand and had scorned his own 
folks who were tryin’ ter help him, was so stupid 
and clumsy because he had eaten so much that he 
couldn’t run, and in a minute the cat had grabbed 
him and fetched him out to the kitchen an’ ate 
him up. Thar,” Mrs. Bragg concluded, “ I guess 
I’ll hey to stir up a corn pone fer dinner,” and 
she got up from the bench. 

“ What became of the Mother Mouse and the 
other little mice? ” Berry demanded. 

But Mrs. Bragg shook her head. “I reckon 
they jes’ moved away,” she said. 

It was now nearly noon, and Berry realized 
that she must get home as soon as possible ; so re- 
minding Mollie that “ school ” would begin the 
next morning, she bade them good-bye. 

As soon as she had left the Bragg cabin 
Berry’s thoughts flew back to the man she had 
encountered that morning. Although she had 
not spoken of him to Mrs. Bragg, for some rea- 
son that she could not easily account for, she was 
now eager to reach home and tell her father and 
mother of the stranger who had taken her for a 
boy, and who had threatened her. 

“ I’ll go home another path,” she decided. “ I 


AT SHILOH 


37 


never want to see that man again,” and she made 
her way up the crest of the ridge, circling about 
thick growths of trees and underbrush, and com- 
ing into the trail that led to the cabin a mile above 
the place where she had encountered the stranger. 


CHAPTER III 


SCHOOL 

It was with a grave face that Mr. Arnold lis- 
tened to Berry’s story of her morning’s adven- 
ture at the brook; and her mother instantly 
declared that Berry could no longer run about 
alone. “ The man was probably a Confederate 
spy,” she said anxiously, “ and if he had discov- 
ered that a family from New England were liv- 
ing near by, that, instead of being a little boy of 
Tennessee, you were a little Yankee girl, we can- 
not tell what would have happened.” 

“Yes, I believe the man has been traveling 
along the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers 
looking over the Confederate line of defense, and 
his saying he might return this way in the spring 
may mean that the Confederates fear an attack 
will be made upon Fort Henry or Fort Donel- 
son. If the Union army could capture these 
forts and open the Tennessee and Cumberland 
rivers, the Confederate line of defense would be 
38 


AT SHILOH 


39 


destroyed,” said Mr. Arnold thoughtfully; and 
Mrs. Arnold instantly added, “We surely need 
not fear any battle taking place near this remote 
spot, but with spies everywhere we must take all 
possible precautions. I hope you did not tell the 
Braggs of meeting a stranger, Berry? ” she 
added. 

“ No; I didn’t tell Mrs. Bragg. I don’t know 
why I didn’t,” Berry responded thoughtfully. 
“ I guess I was really frightened after all, and 
didn’t want Mrs. Bragg to know it.” 

“ Nonsense, Berry! ” said Mr. Arnold sharply. 
“ You could run away from anyone. And if 
you blew your whistle, even if you were too far 
away for me to hear and come to your assistance, 
it would make any dangerous person sure that 
help was close at hand, and would probably 
frighten him away.” 

Berry’s father did not like the idea of the little 
girl going about in fear. He knew it would de- 
stroy all her pleasure in the free woodland life 
which they had all taken so much happiness in. 
The whistle of which he spoke had been a gift to 
Berry from her brother Francis. It was a silver 
whistle, attached to a long silver chain that Berry 
always wore about her neck, with the whistle 


40 


A YANKEE GIRL 


tucked into the pocket of her blouse. During 
the first year in the cabin Mr. Arnold had not 
been sufficiently strong to walk far, and it was 
Francis who had chopped the wood for the cabin 
fires, journeyed to Corinth for necessary provi- 
sions, and fished for bass and pickerel along the 
river; and Berry had often been his companion. 
He had given her the whistle so if she lost sight 
of him in the woodland trails she could instantly 
call him ; and Berry valued it more than anything 
else and never left the cabin without it. 

Nothing more was said that day in regard to 
the stranger, but in the afternoon Mr. Arnold 
started off into the forest, telling Berry that he 
thought she would better stay and keep her 
mother company. He followed the trail to the 
Braggs’ cabin, and made his way for some dis- 
tance up the stream where Berry had encoun- 
tered the stranger; but he found nothing to cause 
alarm, and was tempted to believe that, after all, 
the man might have been only a woodsman jour- 
neying across country, who had thought it an 
amusing game to frighten the small boy for 
whom he had mistaken Berry. 

As he walked along the ridge and down the 
slope to his cabin Mr. Arnold thought to himself 


AT SHILOH 


41 


that, as his wife had said that noon, however the 
conflict went between the armies of the North 
and the South, there was small danger of its com- 
ing nearer to Shiloh church than the defensive 
line of the Confederates at the river forts, and 
which stretched on through Kentucky from the 
Mississippi River to the Cumberland Mountains. 
The control of this defense was in the hands of 
General Albert Sidney Johnston, a man re- 
spected alike by his opponents and his soldiers. 
His line of defense included Fort Henry, on the 
right bank of the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson, 
on the left bank of the Cumberland River; and 
Mr. Arnold was confident that General Ulysses 
S. Grant, the commander of Union forces in 
the West, would not long delay in an attempt to 
conquer these river strongholds. “With those 
forts destroyed Grant’s army could soon break 
the whole western line of defense,” reflected Mr. 
Arnold, little realizing that within a month this 
very thing would be accomplished. 

Before Mr. Arnold reached home the sky filled 
with heavy clouds and it began to snow. “ Glad 
Berry is indoors,” he thought, as he approached 
the cabin and saw the dancing blaze of the sit- 
ting-room fire shine out through the windows. 


42 


A YANKEE GIRL 

Berry and her mother were on the settle beside 
the fire busy with sewing. 

“ It looks just like my things, only smaller,” 
said Berry, holding up a blue serge blouse. 

“ Only Mollie’s suit is a skirt and blouse, in- 
stead of knickerbockers,” her mother smilingly 
reminded her. 

“ Well, Mollie would like knickerbockers, but 
her father never would let her wear them,” said 
Berry. “ Why does Mr. Bragg think I ought 
to wear long calico skirts, I wonder? I could 
not run or climb trees or jump across brooks if I 
wore skirts. Mollie is always tearing hers, 
and tumbling down when she runs after me.” 

“ Mr. Bragg doesn’t really think, my dear. 
He simply echoes,” responded Mrs. Arnold. 
“ But I am sure Mollie will like her new skirt.” 

“ Won’t she be surprised, Mother, to have a 
birthday party? And on the very day school 
begins. The minute Mrs. Bragg said that Jan- 
uary tenth was Mollie’s birthday I thought I’d 
make her a present ; but it was you who thought 
of a party,” and Berry gazed admiringly at her 
pretty, smiling mother, who was always thinking 
of such interesting things for little girls to do. 
For it was Mrs. Arnold who had suggested rip- 


AT SHILOH 


43 


ping up a blue serge skirt of her own and making 
a blouse and skirt of it for Mollie. But it was 
Berry who, with her mothers help, had cut out 
blouse and skirt, and who had stitched the seams 
and embroidered a star in red worsted on the cor- 
ners of the collar. 

When the Arnolds came to Tennessee they 
had brought a good store of clothing; but they 
had not believed a great war was so close at hand, 
a war that was to impoverish the Southern States 
and to make it nearly impossible for people to 
procure suitable clothing; and at the close of 
their second year in their mountain cabin the Ar- 
nolds began to realize that they must take good 
care of their garments, as they could not pur- 
chase new material in the town of Corinth. With 
the Braggs conditions were more difficult, as they 
had never possessed decent clothing; such dresses 
as Mrs. Bragg had managed to secure for herself 
and Mollie were worn to rags. Mrs. Arnold had 
given Mrs. Bragg a dress of stout gingham ; but 
poor little Mollie ran about in a thin worn calico. 
Mrs. Arnold was teaching the little girl to knit a 
jacket for herself of the fine blue yarn that her 
mother spun, and, with a dress of serge, Mollie 
would soon be comfortably clothed. 


44 A YANKEE GIRL 

When the last stitches were set and Mollie’s 
dress was quite finished, Berry carried the serge 
blouse and skirt into her own room, which opened 
from the sitting-room, and that was as pleasant a 
chamber as any little girl could ask. The floor 
of the room, like all the cabin floors, was painted 
yellow. The walls and ceiling were boarded 
with pine, whose soft color blended with the floor. 
Mr. Arnold and Francis had built this room on 
to the cabin, and its wide window overlooked the 
deep ravine toward Lick Creek. But a tall oak 
tree grew so close to the cabin on this side as to 
hide the little building from sight, and when 
Berry looked from her window she looked out 
between the branches of the trees toward rough 
banks and wooded ridges. Mr. Arnold had 
made the simple white bedstead that stood in 
Berry’s room, and the dressing-table, over which 
hung a small square mirror. And Francis had 
built the box-like window-seat, which Mrs. Ar- 
nold had covered with flowered chintz which she 
had brought with her from the North, and had 
made curtains for the window of the same mate- 
rial. A white rug of sheepskin lay beside the 
bed, and there was a chest of drawers in one cor- 
ner of the room, and a small wooden rocking- 
chair painted white. 


AT SHILOH 


45 


Berry put Mollie’s new dress in the lower 
drawer of the wide chest and looked at it admir- 
ingly. Then, from a far corner of the drawer 
she took a long package wrapped in a piece of 
newspaper — for tissue and wrapping paper were 
not easy to obtain in that part of the world in 
1862 — and unrolled it, and a small doll appeared, 
a doll made of cloth, whose hair was of yarn rav- 
eled from the foot of an old brown stocking; 
whose eyes were black buttons, and whose scarlet 
mouth had been marked by beet juice. The doll 
wore a gay dress made of bits of yellow silk from 
Mrs. Arnold’s scrap-bag. Her feet were cov- 
ered with kid shoes, made from a worn-out glove, 
and the little hat, tied on with a bit of yellow silk, 
Berry had made by plaiting dried grasses. 

“ Mollie will like this doll, too,” Berry thought 
happily, as she returned the package to its for- 
mer place. “ I wish there were some other little 
girls to ask to her birthday party,” she thought, 
recalling her former playmates of the far-off 
Vermont village, where a birthday party had 
meant the gathering of at least a dozen little 
girls, all in pretty dresses, and each bringing a 
gift for the girl whose birthday they were cele- 
brating. Berry smiled to herself as she glanced 


46 


A YANKEE GIRL 

down at her stout leather boots and baggy knick- 
erbockers. “ They would all think my clothes as 
queer as Mr. Bragg does,” she thought, recalling 
the full flounced skirts and embroidered panta- 
lettes that she had worn before coming to Shiloh. 

Snow continued to fall during the night, so 
that Mollie’s feet were wet and her faded skirt 
more drabbled and limp than usual when she 
reached the Arnolds’ cabin the next morning. 
An old brown shawl of Mrs. Bragg’s covered her 
head and shoulders, and one end of it trailed be- 
hind her as she entered the pleasant kitchen. 

Mrs. Arnold took off Mollie’s shawl as she 
welcomed their little visitor, and Berry ran for a 
pair of moccasin slippers that Mr. Arnold had 
made from tanned sheepskin, and in a few mo- 
ments Mollie’s wet shoes had been set to dry and 
she was following Berry through the sitting- 
room to Berry’s chamber, looking about as she 
always did with admiring eyes at the simple com- 
forts of a home so different from the Braggs’ 
dark, squalid cabin. 

“ Do you remember what day this is, Mollie? ” 
Berry demanded as they entered her room. 

Mollie nodded eagerly as she smiled radiantly 
up at her friend. 


AT SHILOH 


47 


“ ’Deed I does. It’s the day school begins!” 
she responded, her pale eyes shining with delight. 

“ And what else? ” questioned Berry. 

Mollie’s smile faded and her face grew anx- 
ious. 

“ I dunno, Berry. It’s snowing; you don’t 
mean that, do you? ” she questioned, and Berry 
gave a gay little laugh, and leaning toward her 
kissed Mollie’s cheek, saying, “ Happy birthday, 
Mollie Bragg. Here you are, eleven years old 
to-day! And you forgot all about it! ” 

Mollie looked at her friend with wide eyes. 
“ I ’most always fergits it,” she replied. “ I 
guess nobody ever said ‘ Happy birthday ’ to me 
before.” 

“ Well, I’ll always say it to you after this, al- 
ways! ” Berry declared. “ If I go back to Ver- 
mont and can’t say it, I’ll write it,” she promised; 
and it was a promise she remembered and ful- 
filled after the two little girls were separated by 
the long distance between Vermont and Tennes- 
see. 

As Berry spoke she turned toward the chest of 
drawers and said: 

“ Birthdays mean presents, and here are your 
birthday presents from Mother and me,” and 


48 


A YANKEE GIRL 


Berry drew forth a little petticoat of soft gray 
flannel, one that she had formerly worn, and the 
blue serge blouse and skirt. 

“ Slip off your dress, Mollie, and we’ll see if 
they fit,” urged Berry, laying the garments on 
her bed, and before Mollie had recovered from 
her surprise she found herself dressed in the 
warm petticoat and the pretty serge dress, and 
Berry was tying one of her own scarlet neckties 
under the wide sailor collar of the blouse. 

“There, Mollie! Look at yourself!” and 
Berry swung Mollie about in front of the small 
mirror, where the little girl gazed admiringly at 
her new appearance. Then, with a sober face, 
she began to untie the strip of scarlet silk and to 
unfasten the blouse. 

“ Don’t take them off, Mollie! ” exclaimed the 
astonished Berry. “ You are to wear them, to- 
day anyway.” 

“Are they mine? Truly? ” asked Mollie, as if 
unable to believe that she could really own such 
beautiful apparel. 

“ Of course they are yours. I helped to make 
them, but it was Mother who planned them,” re- 
sponded Berry. 

“O-ooh!” exclaimed Mollie; but before she 


AT SHILOH 


49 


could say anything more a bell in the sitting- 
room tinkled sharply. 

“School! Father is waiting!” Berry ex- 
claimed laughingly, and putting her arm about 
the blue-clad little figure she drew Mollie toward 
the door. 


CHAPTER IV 


A CABIN PARTY 

There was nothing in the Arnolds' sitting- 
room that January morning to remind Berry of 
a sehoolroom unless it was the little brass bell 
that stood on the table beside which Mr. Arnold 
sat. Berry was so much in advance of Mollie in 
the usual school lessons that her father realized it 
would be difficult to teach the two little girls at 
the same time. The slate Berry had used in the 
village school in Vermont, and a box of slate pen- 
cils lay on the table, and a large atlas, opened at a 
good-sized map of the United States, was spread 
out beside it. While Mr. Arnold intended that 
Berry should have a proper knowledge of gram- 
mar and mathematics, he felt that she should un- 
derstand something of the government under 
which she lived; and this morning he called the 
girls to look at the map of the United States, 
thinking it a good plan for both the girls to learn 
the names and location of the various states of 
the Union. 


50 


AT SHILOH 


51 


“ Where’s Shiloh? ” questioned Mollie, gazing 
wonderingly at the brightly colored spaces on the 
map which Mr. Arnold pointed out as the differ- 
ent states of the Union. 

“ Poor little Shiloh isn’t even a village, Mollie; 
it is only the name of a log church on a mountain 
ridge in Tennessee,” he responded. But before 
the year 1862 ended Shiloh was known all 
through the country as the name of the place of 
one of the most terrific battles of the Civil War 
and had become an historic spot. 

“ Here is Tennessee,” continued Mr. Arnold; 
“ and this blue line is the Tennessee River. 
Along here,” and with a pencil he pointed out the 
course of the broad stream, “ it sweeps for many 
miles along the boundary line of Alabama, then 
turns northerly, in this great curve, and flows 
past Fort Henry, and pours its waters into the 
Ohio River. Right here is Pittsburg Land- 
ing.” 

Both the little girls exclaimed at this familiar 
name; for Pittsburg Landing was not many 
miles distant, and was the point where the river 
steamers landed freight for Corinth, eighteen 
miles distant. 

Before the morning lesson hours were over 


52 


A YANKEE GIRL 

Mollie had learned that Washington was the 
capital of the United States, where laws for the 
government of the Union were made. That the 
terrible war between the Southern and Northern 
States, with Francis Arnold in the Northern 
army and Len Bragg with the Southern troops, 
meant that the South wished to “ secede,” to 
leave the Union, and form a new government. 
If the Northern armies won, the negroes would 
be freed, and the North and South remain a 
united nation. If the South conquered the 
North, slavery would continue, and there would 
be two separate governments. 

“ My Pa says the South will win,” Mollie an- 
nounced. “ He says they beat the Yankees at 
Bull Run,” she continued. 

“ Yes, the Southern troops are valiant fight- 
ers,” Mr. Arnold agreed; for he never forgot 
that the Union had been formed by South and 
North alike, and he hoped earnestly for a peace 
that would again unite them in a firm and lasting 
friendship. 

Then, while Berry was learning the rules of a 
lesson in algebra, Mollie happily began her first 
effort in writing. The slate and pencil seemed 
a wonderful thing to the little mountain girl, and 


AT SHILOH 


53 


she patiently endeavored to copy the lines and 
letters that Mr. Arnold traced for her. 

The clock struck twelve, and Mr. Arnold 
again tinkled the small brass bell, and said smil- 
ingly, “ Pupils are expected to be in the school- 
room at ten sharp to-morrow morning. ,, As he 
finished speaking the door into the kitchen 
opened and Mrs. Arnold said: 

“ This is Mollie’s birthday dinner party, so she 
must lead the way to the table.” 

“ O-ooh!” Mollie whispered softly to herself, 
a little flush creeping over her thin face as Berry 
gave her a gentle push toward the kitchen, where 
the round table was spread for four, and where 
Mollie’s chair held the newspaper bundle con- 
taining the doll. 

Mollie Bragg always remembered her eleventh 
birthday; and she always treasured the cloth doll, 
the only one she ever owned, and which she at 
once named “ Mrs. Arnold.” There were broiled 
partridge for dinner, that Mr. Arnold had shot in 
the ravine two days before; and baked potatoes; 
there were spiced pears, that Mrs. Arnold had 
put up the previous autumn; and crisp hot rolls 
and steaming chocolate, a great luxury. And 
then a marvelous thing happened. 


54 


A YANKEE GIRL 


When Mollie believed that the dinner was 
quite over, and was again holding “ Mrs. Ar- 
nold,” and almost too happy to believe in so much 
good fortune, Mrs. Arnold went to the pantry 
and came back bringing a round white-frosted 
cake, on which stood eleven tiny pink lighted 
candles. 

“ O-o-ooh! ” again murmured Mollie, as Mrs. 
Arnold set this wonderful creation in front of her 
little guest. 

“Your birthday cake, Mollie! Wish! Wish 
for something splendid. Then try to blow all 
the candles out with one breath, like this,” and 
Berry puffed out her cheeks and blew so strongly 
that the little flames wavered. “ If all the can- 
dle flames go out your wish will come true before 
your next birthday,” Berry concluded earnestly. 

Mollie promptly obeyed Berry’s directions, 
with such good success that every tiny flame was 
extinguished. 

“ Goody! Goody! But you mustn’t tell your 
wish until next birthday,” cautioned Berry, run- 
ning around the table and carefully removing the 
candles from the cake. They were the same can- 
dles that had been used on Berry’s own cake on 
her eleventh birthday in October, and they were 


AT SHILOH 


55 


now carefully put away. For who could tell 
when it would again be possible to purchase wax 
candles? 

Then Mrs. Arnold helped Mollie cut the cake, 
and at the first taste Mollie smiled more radi- 
antly than ever, but quickly put the piece back 
on her plate. 

“ Don’t you like it, Mollie? ” Berry asked 
anxiously. 

“ It’s beautiful! ” Mollie replied soberly; “ but 
I’m goin’ ter take it home ter Ma. May I? ” she 
added, a little doubtfully. 

“ The whole cake is yours, Mollie dear. But 
you must eat the first piece yourself,” Mrs. Ar- 
nold said quickly; “ you are to take the remain- 
der home.” 

Mollie drew a long breath. 44 1 reckon my 
Ma never tasted a birthday cake,” she said so- 
berly. 

After dinner was over and Mollie had seen 
Mrs. Arnold put the cake carefully into a small 
basket, which she told the little girl she was to 
carry home, Berry and Mollie went back to the 
sitting-room; and Berry brought out her own 
two fine dolls, which had heads of china with 
black curls painted on them, and were dressed in 


56 


A YANKEE GIRL 

white muslin and wore sashes of blue silk. Berry; 
had brought these dolls from Vermont, and one 
was named Josephine Maria, for Berry’s Grand- 
mother Arnold, who had given the dolls to Berry, 
and the other was called Maria Josephine. 
“ Then, you see, neither one can be the favorite,” 
Berry explained, as she set the dolls side by side 
in her father’s big chair. “ Now let’s play it’s a 
real party ; my dolls and your doll can be ‘ real ’ 
girls, and we’ll talk for them,” she continued. 

Mollie nodded with smiling delight, and for an 
hour or more the two little friends and their dolls 
played happily. But as the clock struck three 
Mollie announced that she must start for home. 

“ It gets shadowy and kinder fearsome in the 
woods come late afternoon,” she said, “ and my 
Pa says that niggers are runnin’ off every little 
while, and maybe are hid up in the woods ; so I’d 
be skeered to go home late.” 

“ Don’t be afraid of any poor colored man or 
woman who might be coming over the ridge, Mol- 
lie,” said Mrs. Arnold gently. 

“You mean niggers?” questioned the little 
girl; and then added quickly, “ Oh, Mrs. Arnold! 
I never knew how grand it would be to be eleven 
vears old, and have a birthday cake, and a doll, 


AT SHILOH 


57 


and a dress ! ” And she looked from one gift to 
another with so radiant a face that Mrs. Arnold 
felt well rewarded for her friendly efforts for her 
small neighbor’s happiness. Berry had slipped 
on her cap and coat and was ready to go part of 
the way home with Mollie. Just as they had 
started Mollie suddenly turned back, and run- 
ning to Mrs. Arnold she looked up at her and 
said earnestly, “ I been tryin’ to say 4 thank you.’ 
But ’tain’t enough to say, fer all you give me. 
’Tain’t enuff jes’ ter say , 4 Thank you! ’ ” 

44 Indeed it is enough, dear Mollie,” responded 
Mrs. Arnold, leaning down to kiss the little face 
now flushed with the joy of her happy birthday. 

Mrs. Arnold stood in the doorway of the cabin 
and watched the two little girls until the forest 
shut them from view. The snow had all van- 
ished, the winter sun still shone warmly above the 
tree-tops, and only the caws of a passing flock of 
crows disturbed the perfect quiet of the scene. 


CHAPTER V 


LILY 

Although Mrs. Arnold had told Mollie there 
was no need to fear the fugitive negroes who now 
and then made their way across the mountains, 
hoping to find freedom from slavery in the 
Northern States, the little girl’s words made 
Mrs. Arnold thoughtful. Supposing a fleeing 
Tennessee slave appealed to her for a hiding- 
place, or for assistance to escape into Kentucky, 
which remained loyal to the Union, while Ten- 
nessee was a Confederate state, what could she 
do? Mr. and Mrs. Arnold both realized that, 
even on that remote mountain ridge, the fact that 
they were from the North, that their son was a 
soldier in the Northern army, would naturally 
prejudice Southerners against them, and if any 
member of the little household was discovered be- 
friending a fleeing negro — who in those days was 
regarded as a piece of property by his master, 
and could be dragged back into slavery — it 
would place them in a dangerous position. 

58 


AT SHILOH 


59 


She spoke of it to her husband, but Mr. Ar- 
nold saw no cause for uneasiness. 

“ Of course, if any human being came to our 
door in need we would have to do what we could 
for him. Especially if it were a black man or 
woman; for they have never had a fair chance in 
this country, and we are bound to help them. I 
do not think there are half a dozen people beside 
the Braggs who know anything about us; and 
they are our friends,” he concluded. 

“ Mr. Bragg declares he doesn’t care which 
side wins,” responded Mrs. Arnold. “ He says 
he is 4 neutral,’ and that is why he is so angry at 
Len’s running away to join the Confederate 
army. But I don’t quite trust Steve Bragg.” 

While Mr. and Mrs. Arnold discussed the 
questions that were then causing so much trou- 
ble, Berry and Mollie had reached the brook and 
were saying good-bye. 

Berry had carefully explained just how Mol- 
lie’s doll had been made. 44 1 spread out a piece 
of white cloth, doubled, and marked a doll out 
with a piece of charcoal, and then cut it out and 
stitched the two pieces together, just leaving a 
place open on top of the head, and then filled her 
with sawdust, sewed up the open place and 


60 A YANKEE GIRL 

covered her head with raveled yarn,” said 
Berry. 

“P’raps I can make one!” Mollie suggested 
hopefully. 

“ Of course you could,” Berry agreed 
promptly. 

“ I’ll make a black nigger doll, so’s ‘ Mrs. 
Arnold ’ can have it for a slave,” said Mollie. 

“Oh! Mollie, you can’t! That’s what this 
war is about; to make white people stop making 
slaves of black people; it isn’t fair!” declared 
Berry, and quickly added, “ Mollie, why don’t 
you give your doll an easier name? ” 

“ I don’t know any names. I loves your Ma, 
an’ I loves this doll; so I calls the doll ‘Mrs. 
Arnold,’ ” Mollie responded soberly, “ an’ I don’ 
see no harm in makin’ a nigger doll.” 

“Well, Mollie, my mother’s name is Ellen; 
why don’t you call the doll that? ” Berry sug- 
gested. 

“ Oh! Yes! Ellen is lovely. ‘ Mrs. Arnold,’ 
your name is ‘ Ellen,’ ” Mollie promptly in- 
formed her doll, holding it out at arm’s length 
that she might better admire it. 

“ I’ll start back now,” said Berry. “ School is 
going to be fine, isn’t it, Mollie? ” 


AT SHILOH 


61 


Mollie vigorously nodded her shawl-covered 
head. “It’s grand!” she declared; and then, 
coining very close to Berry, she whispered, 44 I’ve 
got a secret ! Maybe I can tell it to you to-mor- 
row!” and before Berry had time to question 
her, Mollie had taken the basket that held the 
precious birthday cake and started to cross the 
brook, making her way carefully from stone to 
stone. She did not leap from the broad stone to 
the opposite bank, as Berry delighted in doing, 
but followed the stepping-stones until the stream 
was safely crossed. Then she turned and called 
to Berry, who had stood waiting to be sure that 
Mollie crossed the stream in safety. 

“ I’m all right. Berry,” she called. “ I think 
it’s fine to be eleven.” 

44 What’s the secret, Mollie? ” Berry called 
back; but Mollie had turned and was hurrying 
off toward home. Berry looked after the little 
figure in the trailing shawl until it vanished in 
the forest path, and then turned and ran lightly 
up the ridge. A cold wind crept among the 
branches of the tall oaks as Berry ran; a rabbit 
leaped out from the underbrush and sped along 
before her for a short distance, and then van- 
ished. Squirrels scolded noisily from the oak 


62 


A YANKEE GIRL 


trees, and from the deep woods Berry could hear 
the distant call of some winter-loving bird. But 
the little girl hardly noticed these familiar sounds 
of the forest. 

“ I wonder what Mollie’s secret can be? ” she 
thought, and resolved to start out and meet Mol- 
lie the next morning. “ Then she can tell me 
before lesson-time,” she decided. 

Berry had just reached this conclusion when 
her quick eye caught the movement of a dark ob- 
ject behind the underbrush that bordered the 
path. “A fox, maybe !” she thought, stopping 
to look more closely at the dark form. As she 
looked the figure raised itself from behind the 
underbrush and Berry gave a startled exclama- 
tion; for it was not a fox or any woodland animal 
that confronted her, but a young negro girl, evi- 
dently more frightened than Berry, and it was 
Berry who spoke first. 

“ What are you hiding there for? ” Berry de- 
manded. “ Come out in the path where I can 
see you.” 

There were few negroes near Shiloh, and since 
coming to live in the mountain cabin the little 
Yankee girl had seldom encountered them. But 
she knew that Tennessee was a state where ne- 


63 


AT SHILOH 

groes were considered as the property of white 
masters; that negroes possessed no rights in re- 
gard to protection from cruelty and injustice. 
If they were fortunate in belonging to a kind 
master, and there were many such throughout 
the slaveholding states, they were well treated; 
but if owned by cruel, ignorant men, the negroes 
were abused; and it was from such unfair treat- 
ment that they frequently endeavored to escape 
by fleeing North. But, unless they could reach 
Canada, there was no safety for them in the 
Northern States, as the law of the Union, then, 
gave their masters the right to pursue them and 
force them to return. To end this injustice was 
one of the chief reasons for the Civil War. 

As Berry looked at the frightened black face 
that peered at her above the underbrush she in- 
stantly realized that this was a runaway slave, 
and she again called: 

“ Come out in the path where I can see you,” 
and now the negro girl crept out from her hid- 
ing-place and stood facing Berry. 

“ Oh, young Massa, don’ mek me go back,” she 
faltered. “ I’se hongry an’ col’, an’ I dunno 
’zackly whar I be; but I reckons, if yo’ jes’ go on, 
young Massa, I kin git off so’s I won’t be 


64 


A YANKEE GIRL 

kotched,” and she fixed her big eyes pleadingly 
on Berry’s face, her thin form, clad in a ragged 
garment made of coarse bagging material, shiv- 
ering in the cold. 

“ I’m a girl,” Berry announced. “ You can’t 
hide out in the woods; it’s too cold. You’ll 
freeze,” she added quickly. “ And you need not 
be afraid of me. I’ll help you.” 

The negro girl stared at Berry as if even more 
frightened than before. 

“ Wot yo’ dressed up dis way for? ” she asked. 

“ Never mind about me,” Berry replied, “ but 
do as I say. If you will come with me you can 
have something warm to eat and drink, anyway. 
Then if you want to keep on running away you 
can.” 

For a moment the little white girl, rosy, well 
clad, and unafraid, and the gaunt, half -clothed, 
frightened black girl faced each other. Then a 
softer expression crept over the face of the negro 
girl, and she took a step toward Berry. “ I’se 
gwine ter trus’ yo’, young Mass — Missie,” she 
said softly. 

Berry nodded. “ Nobody shall hurt you,” she 
promised soberly. “And let’s run, or Father will 
be coming to find me.” 


65 


AT SHILOH 

But the negro girl shook her head dole- 
fully. “ I cyan’t run, young Mass — Missie; my 
feetes is hurt,” and now for the first time Berry 
noticed that the girl’s legs were bare, and that 
her feet were protected from the rough, frozen 
ground only by worn pieces of cloth, tied about 
with string. And at this Berry exclaimed pity- 
ingly: 

“ Your poor feet! Well, we’ll go easy,” and 
she clasped the girl’s thin arm, and started for- 
ward. 

The negro girl did not speak again until they 
came in sight of the cabin, then she stopped sud- 
denly. “ Yo’ ain’ gwine ter let nobuddy sen’ me 
back ter Alabamy? ” she asked fearfully. 

Berry’s clasp on the girl’s arm tightened. “ I 
am going to help you, I am going to be your 
friend! ” she promised earnestly. And the slave 
girl, meeting the pitying, friendly glance of 
Berry’s brown eyes, was convinced that the im- 
possible had happened; that a runaway slave girl 
had really found a friend. From that moment 
she had full confidence in Berry; whatever Berry 
told her to do she did instantly, sure that no 
harm could befall her as long as Berry was 
near, 


66 


A YANKEE GIRL 


“ What is your name? ” Berry asked, as they 
reached the porch. 

“ My name’s Lily.” 

Berry pushed open the door into the kitchen, 
still clasping her companion’s arm. “ Mother, 
here is Lily ! ” she announced. 


CHAPTER VI 


SECRETS 

Mrs. Arnold was busy at the kitchen table 
when Berry’s announcement: “Here is Lily!” 
caused her to turn toward the door, and it was 
small wonder that for a moment she was too 
surprised at the sight that confronted her to 
speak. But she quickly realized what had hap- 
pened, that Berry had encountered a fugitive 
slave girl and brought her to the cabin, and poor 
Lily’s frightened, pleading eyes, as well as her 
half-clothed, trembling form, instantly appealed 
to Mrs. Arnold’s sympathies. 

“ Come right to the fire, Lily,” she said kindly. 
“ And, Berry, you would better heat some milk 
at once.” 

Mrs. Arnold did not ask any questions. She 
could see that the negro girl was worn out by 
fatigue, hunger and cold, and promptly began to 
make her comfortable, bringing a warm blanket 
from the little chamber off the kitchen, where 
Francis had formerly slept, and wrapping it 
67 


68 


A YANKEE GIRL 

about the girl, who, silent, and still inclined to be 
afraid, sat stiffly on the wooden kitchen chair 
near the stove. Berry had instantly slipped off 
her cap, jacket and mittens, and put on a long 
gingham apron, that at once changed her ap- 
pearance from that of a slender, alert boy to a 
curly-headed little girl. And as the shivering 
Lily watched her new friend set a small dipper 
filled with milk on the stove, and hurry back to 
the pantry for bread which she proceeded to 
toast and liberally spread with butter, Lily’s face 
softened and she became sure that this wonderful 
little person, who had brought her to warmth 
and shelter and promised to protect her, was 
really a girl. 

Lily ate ravenously. The hot milk and but- 
tered toast disappeared so quickly that Berry 
hurried to the pantry for the remains of the par- 
tridge, left from dinner, and for more bread, and 
a new supply of milk, all of which the negro girl 
devoured. 

“ I ain’t et rael food fer days,” she whispered, 
looking up at Berry. “ An’ I neve’ ’spected I’d 
hev a chanst ter eat agin.” 

While Berry was providing food for this un- 
expected visitor, Mrs. Arnold had filled a big 


AT SHILOH 


69 


kettle with water and set it on the stove to heat. 
The door into Francis’s room was open, and Mrs. 
Arnold had placed a small tub there, and by the 
time Lily’s appetite was satisfied the water was 
ready and the tub filled. Taking soap and tow- 
els Mrs. Arnold told the negro girl to follow her, 
and the surprised Lily was soon after introduced 
to the first hot bath of her life. Then, clad in a 
warm flannel wrapper, she curled up on the cot 
bed and was fast asleep when Mrs. Arnold re- 
turned to the kitchen. 

Berry told her mother the story of finding the 
fugitive slave girl hiding on the side of the ridge, 
and Mrs. Arnold listened with a grave face. 
“ It was so cold, Mother, and she was so shivery 
and frightened, I had to bring her home. And 
you said that of course we must help anyone who 
needed help,” Berry pleaded, half afraid, by her 
mother’s serious face, that she did not approve of 
Berry’s having brought the negro girl home. 

“ Of course, Berry dear, you did exactly right. 
It has begun to snow again, and the poor crea- 
ture would have perished if you had not brought 
her to shelter. She looks half -starved,” and Mrs. 
Arnold wondered to herself at the courage of this 
young slave girl who had started out in mid- 


70 


A YANKEE GIRL 


winter, facing the dangers of the forest, of hun- 
ger and cold, and of probable pursuit, capture 
and punishment, rather than remain a slave. 

“ But you look as if you wished I hadn’t, 
Mother!” said Berry. 

“ Do I? ” and Mrs. Arnold smiled at Berry’s 
troubled exjjression. “ Well, my dear, I was 
wondering what we can do with Lily. You know 
slaveholders always try to find a runaway negro, 
and if Lily’s owner comes after her and finds 
her here, he would have a right to take her. That 
is the law, and we could not prevent her going.” 

“ It’s a horrid law! ” Berry declared, and her 
mother promptly agreed. “ But, Mother, per- 
haps Lily’s master may not even try to find her, 
and then Lily can stay here,” the little girl con- 
tinued hopefully, and Mrs. Arnold assented, say- 
ing: 

“We will see what Father says when he comes 
in. Of course the girl must stay here for the 
present.” 

Mr. Arnold had gone to the little clearing 
further down the ridge where stood the rough log 
shelter that he had built for the cow, and when 
he entered the cabin Berry and her mother were 
eager to tell him of Berry’s encounter with the 


AT SHILOH 


71 


negro girl, and that Berry had promised to be- 
friend her, and had brought her home; and 
greatly to Berry’s delight, and to the relief of 
Mrs. Arnold, he did not appear to be greatly 
troubled by Lily’s presence in the cabin. 

“ We’ll find out more about her, when the girl 
is well rested. Very likely her owner won’t 
bother to look for her,” he said; “but I don’t 
know what we can do with her,” he added. 

“ Oh, Father! There are lots of things Lily 
could do,” Berry assured him eagerly, quite as if 
she had known the negro girl all her life, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Arnold smiled at their little daugh- 
ter’s evident adoption of the fleeing Lily. 

The wind, thrashing among the branches of the 
forest trees, and the cold rain that had followed 
the fall of snow, made the blazing fire in the 
Arnolds’ sitting-room seem even more pleasant 
than usual that evening, as Berry drew her small 
rocking-chair near the hearth. Berry’s thoughts 
were occupied with Lily: she was sure that Lily 
must have had wonderful adventures, and looked 
forward to hearing them. She had entirely for- 
gotten Mollie’s “ secret,” and was earnestly plan- 
ning how Lily could be provided with clothing. 
While Berry’s thoughts were filled by this new 


72 


A YANKEE GIRL 

adventure that had befallen her, Mr. and Mrs. 
Arnold were talking of the Union armies, and of 
the troops under General Ulysses S. Grant, a 
quiet, unostentatious officer, whose name was to 
be linked with the mightiest achievements of the 
Civil War. 

“ Grant’s soldiers are now on their first cam- 
paign, untrained and unused to war. But most 
of them are from the West, hardy and brave, and 
if Grant moves against Forts Henry and Donel- 
son it will open the Cumberland and Tennessee 
Rivers, and carry forward the Union front of 
war two hundred miles, — for General Grant 
would have Foote’s fleet of iron-clads on the 
river to make victory sure,” declared Mr. Arnold. 

“ If the Tennessee is once opened there will be 
conflicts near Pittsburg Landing, at Corinth — 
perhaps even nearer to us than that,” responded 
Mrs. Arnold anxiously. 

Mr. Arnold acknowledged that might be pos- 
sible. “ But, even so, we could not be in a safer 
place than in this mountain ravine. An army 
might march by on the Corinth road, or arrive 
at Pittsburg Landing, without troubling us. I 
am much more anxious about Berry’s adventures 
with these wanderers along the trails than I am 


AT SHILOH 


73 


about armies and battles coming to Shiloh,” he 
said, and at the sound of her own name Berry 
jumped up and ran to the big settle where her 
mother and father were sitting. 

“ What army, Father? ” she asked. 

“ General Grant’s army of West Tennessee, 
and the Confederate army of Commander-in- 
Chief Albert S. Johnston,” replied her father. 
“ Are you going to meet strange woodsmen or 
fleeing negroes every time you leave the house? ” 
he added, smiling down at Berry’s serious face. 

“I wish spring would come! I’m tired of 
winter,” said Berry. 

“ It won’t be long now,” her mother declared. 
“If the weather turns warm after this storm the 
catkins will begin to show on the alder bushes, 
the wild geese will come flying over, and spring 
will be close at hand. But it’s bedtime, Berry, 
dear, so say good-night and be off.” 

“May I peek in and see if Lily is asleep?” 
asked Berry, and at her mother’s smiling nod 
the little girl ran to open the door into the little 
room where the negro girl slept in safety. 

The Arnolds had finished breakfast the next 
morning before there was any sound in the ad- 
joining chamber. Mrs. Arnold had selected 


74 


A YANKEE GIRL 

some part-worn garments for the negro girl, and 
in a little while Lily appeared in the kitchen, a 
very different Lily from the ragged, frightened 
Lily that Berry had brought home. She was 
eager to help in the work of the cabin, and before 
the hour for lessons arrived Mrs. Arnold realized 
that Lily had been well trained as a house servant. 

“ Do not ask Lily any questions, Berry,” her 
mother cautioned. “ Wait until she is ready to 
tell us her story,” and Berry, a little reluctantly, 
agreed, for she was eager to hear of Lily’s jour- 
ney, and of her escape from slavery. 

At ten o’clock the little bell tinkled warningly, 
and Berry hastened to the sitting-room. 

“ Mollie has not come,” she announced. 

“We will have to plan extra studies for pupils 
who are late or absent,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ Oh, Father! You said that just like a real 
teacher,” said Berry. “ Are we not going to 
wait for Mollie? ” 

“ No, indeed! You and I will read a while,” 
replied Mr. Arnold, opening a book on the 
table. 

Berry looked at him questioningly. “ But 
reading isn’t lessons, Father! It’s just fun,” she 
said, a little note of reproach in her voice. 


AT SHILOH 


75 


“ Listen to this, and then, when I finish, repeat 
as much of it as you can remember, ,, responded 
Mr. Arnold smilingly. 

“ 6 Pansies, lilies, kingcups, daisies, 

Let them live upon their praises ; 

Long as there’s a sun that sets, 

Primroses will have their glory; 

Long as there are violets, 

They will have a place in story. 

There’s a flower that shall be mine, 

’Tis the modest celandine.’ ” 

“Father! That’s not a lesson. I can say it 
all,” declared Berry, and indeed she could, so 
well had her memory been trained in this very 
way, repeat Wordsworth’s beautiful lines with- 
out a mistake. The lesson in algebra followed, 
and the morning hours of study ended without 
Mollie appearing. 

“ Probably she doesn’t want to come,” said 
Mr. Arnold. 

But Berry and her mother were sure that was 
not the reason that kept Mollie away. 

“ May I go down and find out why she did 
not come? ” asked Berry, as she sat down at the 
dinner table. 


76 


A YANKEE GIRL 


“ No, I’m not willing for you to go down the 
trail to-day,” said Mrs. Arnold quickly. “ Per- 
haps Mollie will appear this afternoon.” 

“ Perhaps she will,” agreed Berry hopefully; 
“ and I guess she will be surprised to see Lily,” 
and she smiled at the silent Lily, who stood in 
one corner of the kitchen with her eyes fixed won- 
deringly upon her new friends. 


CHAPTER VII 


A SURPRISE 

When the third day passed without Mollie 
appearing at the Arnolds’ cabin Mrs. Arnold 
gave Berry permission to go and find out the 
reason. There were not to be any lessons that 
morning, as Mr. Arnold had not been well for 
several days, and it was Lily who cared for the 
cow, brought the milk to the cabin, the wood 
from the shed, and did all the chores that Berry’s 
father usually did about the cabin. 

“ Isn’t it lucky I found Lily? ” Berry asked 
soberly, as she made ready for her tramp over 
the ridge to the Braggs’ cabin. 

“ Lily is a great help,” Mrs. Arnold replied, 
but she did not tell Berry that the fact of having 
the fugitive slave girl in the house might prove a 
great danger to the Yankee household on the 
Tennessee mountain ridge. 

“ Do not say a word about Lily to Mollie or 
to Mr. and Mrs. Bragg,” Mrs. Arnold added, 
and Berry promised, thinking that whatever 
77 


78 


A YANKEE GIRL 


Mollie’s secret was it could not be more wonder- 
ful than the discovery of Lily. 

“ It’s like spring,” thought Berry as she strode 
along the leaf-covered path. “ I smell it in the 
air.” For it was one of the days of late January 
when, among the ravines and valleys of the Ten- 
nessee mountains, spring seems close at hand. 
The sun shone warmly down, and wrens, nut- 
hatches and cardinals flitted about the forest. 
“ It won’t be long before the sap begins to run 
and we can make maple-sugar,” thought Berry. 
For there was a grove of sugar maples not two 
miles distant from the cabin, and Berry recalled 
the previous spring when she and her father had 
tapped the trees, boiled down the sap and made 
maple-sugar. “ And that’s what we’ll do this 
year,” she decided happily, as she left the path 
for a moment to watch a scurrying partridge as it 
fluttered over the rough ground. 

Berry had not gone far from home, however, 
before she was sure that she was being followed; 
that someone, keeping well out of sight behind 
trees and underbrush, was not far behind her; 
and she wondered if it might not be the man who, 
only a week earlier, had spoken to her at the 
brook crossing, and mistaken her for a boy; and 


AT SHILOH 79 

at this thought Berry's hand sought the silver 
whistle. 

“ But the whistle wouldn't help to-day; Father 
is too ill to come," she thought; “but it might 
frighten anyone who was hiding," she decided. 
But Berry did not use the whistle. She was a 
fleet runner, and off she went at her best pace, 
sure that she could outrun any would-be pur- 
suer. Nevertheless, by the breaking of twigs 
and the crashing noises in the undergrowth, the 
little girl knew that her unseen pursuer still kept 
her in view; and not until she reached the high- 
way, along which she must go for a short distance 
before reaching the rough lane leading to the 
Braggs’ cabin, did she believe that she was at 
last out of reach of her pursuer. 

“ I'll ask Mr. Bragg to go home with me," 
Berry resolved as she hurried up the lane, for 
she recalled the stranger’s threats if she told of 
having seen him, and did not wish to encounter 
him again. 

As Berry came in sight of Mollie’s home she 
noticed that there was no thread of smoke rising 
from the chimney of the cabin; it had a lonely 
and deserted look, but Berry did not stop to 
think of this. She was sure that in a moment the 


80 


A YANKEE GIRL 


door would open wide, and Mollie, smiling with 
pleasure at the sight of her friend, would give 
her a warm welcome. 

Berry rapped on the door, and then gave it a 
little push. But the door did not open, there 
was no response to her knock, and Berry now 
noticed that the cabin windows on each side of 
the door were evidently boarded up on the in- 
side. 

“ They’ve gone away! And Mollie did not 
tell me ! ” she exclaimed aloud, with a sense of 
angry resentment against poor Mollie. 

“ That was her old secret! All the time I was 
making her doll, and her dress, and when she 
was pretending to want to come to school she 
knew she was going off,” thought Berry, tears 
of angry resentment and disappointment coming 
to her eyes. 

It was to be many weeks before Berry was to 
hear the true story of the Braggs’ sudden dis- 
appearance, and learn that poor little Mollie had 
not been given time to tell her great secret, or to 
say good-bye to the friends who had given her 
such a happy birthday. 

For a few moments Berry stood on the worn 
stone that formed the threshold to the dilapidated 


AT SHILOH 


81 


cabin, wondering where the Braggs had gone, 
and if they meant to return. The boarded win- 
dows made her feel sure that they had no inten- 
tion of coming back, and, with a mournful sigh, 
Berry at last turned from the cabin and started 
on her tramp back through the forest. 

Her thoughts were so filled by Mollie’s disap- 
pearance that she had entirely forgotten the pos- 
sibility of again encountering the man who had 
called her “ Berry Nees,” and not until she had 
left the main road and chanced to see a crouch- 
ing figure lurking behind an old stump near the 
path did she realize that whoever it was that had 
followed her from home was still watching her 
every step. 

Almost without thinking Berry drew the sil- 
ver whistle from her pocket and its sharp call 
sounded clearly through the silence of the wood- 
land path, and came echoing back as if repeated 
by a dozen whistles, and instantly the crouching 
figure sprang upright and leaped toward the lit- 
tle girl, exclaiming: 

“ Don’, Missie! Fer de lawd sakes, don’ blow 
no whissel!” and Berry found herself clasped 
tightly by the thin arms of Lily, who whispered 
fearfully: 


82 


A YANKEE GIRL 

“ Yo’ don’ know w’at a whissel might fotch, 
Missie. ’Deed yo’ don’ ! ” and her big, frightened 
eyes stared at Berry as if they were both facing 
some great peril. 

Berry pulled herself angrily away from the 
girl’s clutching fingers. 

“ Was it you who followed me all the way 
from home? ” she demanded. 

“ Yas, Missie,” came the faltering response. 

“ And you were hiding behind that stump to 
follow me home, I suppose? ” she continued. 

“ Yas, Missie,” replied Lily in a whisper. 

Berry was now feeling herself a much abused 
person. To have Mollie, her only friend and 
playmate, disappear without a word of explana- 
tion or good-bye had been a bitter experience ; to 
have felt herself pursued all along the forest trail 
by a possible enemy, and now to discover that she 
had been needlessly afraid because of this stupid 
negro girl, made her angry and resentful. Berry 
did not stop to ask why Lily had followed her, 
or to remember that the girl was still afraid of 
every sound, and felt herself safe only when near 
to the little girl who had befriended her, and 
angry words rushed to her lips. 

“Don’t you dare follow me another step! I 


AT SHILOH 


83 


don’t want to see you again, ever! ” she declared, 
and without another glance at the cowering 
figure, Berry hurried on up the trail. She no 
longer noticed the calls of the forest birds, or the 
sunshine that sent flickering shadows across the 
woodland path. Mollie was gone, she was sure 
she would never see her again, and that stupid 
negro girl had made her run all that distance 
down the ridge as if pursued by a mountain lion, 
she thought resentfully. 

“ I wish Francis was home,” she half sobbed, 
as she drew near the cabin. “ Everything was 
all right when he was here. I hate war! ” For 
Berry realized that it was the war that had taken 
her brother from home to unknown perils and 
to certain danger, and left her alone with her 
mother and father in the cabin, remote from 
friends. 

She ran into the kitchen and, almost ready to 
cry, exclaimed: 

“Mother! Mother! Mollie’s gone! The 
Braggs are all gone, and the cabin fastened up! 
And Mollie never let us know ! ” 

“ Perhaps Mollie did not have a chance, my 
dear,” said Mrs. Arnold quietly. “ I am sure she 
would have told us if she could. But the Braggs 


84 


A YANKEE GIRL 


are not the only ones who have disappeared. 
Lily has run away from us. She disappeared 
just after you left the cabin. I don’t understand 
her going, for she seemed to think herself safe 
with us.” 

Berry stood silent for a moment, and then said 
slowly, “ Lily will come back. Of course she 
will.” 

“ I hope she will; she was a great help; if your 
father has to stay indoors for a time I do not 
know how we will manage without her help,” re- 
joined Mrs. Arnold. 

Berry stepped back to the porch and looked 
anxiously down the path, but there was no sign 
of Lily. 

“ Come in, dear; it is no use to look for her. 
Something must have frightened her, and so she 
has started off, or else she is dishonest and un- 
grateful,” said Mrs. Arnold. 

When Berry told her father of the disappear- 
ance of the entire Bragg family, he declared that 
he was not surprised. 

“ Very likely Steve Bragg has heard that 
Commodore Foote’s gunboats are ready to come 
up the Tennessee, and that General Grant is 
preparing to advance upon the river forts, or that 


AT SHILOH 


85 


the Confederate forces may move toward 
Corinth. For Bragg is as much afraid of one 
army as of the other, and he has probably taken 
his family to some place farther from the river, 
and from the road to Corinth,” he said, adding, 
“ Poor little Mollie; her one day at school is likely 
to be her last.” 

“ Perhaps they will come back? ” Berry sug- 
gested, wishing she had not been so quick to 
blame Mollie for what it was plainly evident the 
little girl could not help. 

“ I do not think so,” said Mr. Arnold; “but 
what do you suppose has become of your black 
Lily? ” and her father’s eyes rested questioningly 
on the sober face of his little daughter. Berry 
made no reply. She was beginning to be 
ashamed of her anger toward Lily, and to be 
sorry for her hasty words. 


CHAPTER VIII 

lily’s story 

Mr. Arnold had been right in thinking that 
Steve Bragg had removed to a location that he 
believed safer than the neighborhood of the Ten- 
nessee River in the late winter of 1862 , and it was 
a long time before the Arnolds had any news of 
their former neighbors. But in her anxiety about 
Lily, Berry forgot, for the moment, that her 
playmate Mollie would not be on hand for their 
walks and games, and that henceforth she would 
be the only little girl on Shiloh Ridge. 

Noonday passed, and the winter afternoon 
drew to a close, and Berry now became sure that 
they would never see Lily again. She thought 
of the friendless negro girl again wandering 
about without food or shelter, and trembling at 
every noise, and earnestly wished she had not 
driven her away. 

Just at nightfall the outer door was cautiously 
pushed open, and Lily, her arms filled with wood, 
appeared on the threshold. Without a word, or 
86 


87 


AT SHILOH 

a look toward the astonished Mrs. Arnold and 
the surprised Berry, she quietly filled the wood- 
box, and taking the milking-pail from its accus- 
tomed place started toward the door. Before she 
could reach it Berry called “ Lily! ” and started 
toward her. 

“ I knows yo’ don’ wan’ me h’ar, Missie, an’ 
soon’s I do de chores fer yo’ Ma I’ll get my ole 
dress an’ go,” the girl said humbly, not raising 
her eyes to look at the little girl who had prom- 
ised to be her friend, and who had then ordered 
her never to return to the cabin. 

‘ Berry does not want you to go, Lily. What- 
ever made you think that? ” questioned Mrs. Ar- 
nold. “We have all been troubled and anxious 
about you.” 

At the sound of Mrs. Arnold’s friendly voice 
Lily looked up, and her eyes sought Berry’s 
questioningly. 

“ Don’t go away, Lily,” exclaimed the little 
girl. “ I don’t want you to go.” 

A broad smile crept over Lily’s face as she 
glanced from Berry to Mrs. Arnold. “ Den I 
ain’ ever gwine away,” she declared, and started 
off with the milk pail toward the barn. 

“ Lily seemed to think you did not want her 


88 


A YANKEE GIRL 


here. Poor girl. I wonder what will become of 
her,” said Mrs. Arnold thoughtfully. 

“ Oh, Mother! You talk as if you did not 
mean for her to stay here! ” Berry reproachfully 
responded. “ And I told her to go and never 
come back! ” she added quickly; and then Berry 
told the story of Lily following her to the high- 
way. 

“ She kept out of sight all the way, Mother. 
But so near that I could hear her in the under- 
brush. And then, after I found the Braggs were 
gone, and started for home, and heard someone 
ready to follow me again, and found it was Lily, 
— and she acted so foolish and frightened, I told 
her I never wanted to see her again.” 

Mrs. Arnold busied herself with some work at 
the kitchen table, and for a moment made no re- 
sponse. It was Berry who was the first to speak. 

“ Of course I did not mean it, Mother. I 
want her to stay. I was only angry.” 

“ I expect Lily is used to people being angry 
with her; perhaps that is why she ran away. It 
may be the reason that she would rather suffer 
cold and hunger, and flee in terror from every 
noise, rather than live with people who were 
easily angered,” Mrs. Arnold responded quietly; 


AT SHILOH 


80 


“angry people are usually cruel people,” she 
added, and before Berry could speak her mother 
continued: “ The only reason that troubles me 
in regard to Lily staying with us is that your 
father and I might be accused of sheltering a 
runaway slave, and if she is found in our house 
it might involve us in serious trouble. You know, 
Berry, this is a slaveholding state.” 

“ But no one knows she is here. And if any- 
one comes they will think Lily belongs to us,” 
Berry responded eagerly. “ And, Mother! ” she 
added soberly, “ I did not mean to be angry. I 
just couldn’t help it.” 

Mrs. Arnold shook her head. “ That’s what 
everyone thinks, my dear. But even if you were 
angry it was no excuse. Lily followed you be- 
cause she loved you: if any accident had befallen 
you on the w r ay Lily would have been close at 
hand to help or protect you. I am sure that was 
her reason for following you. You see, Berry, 
you were the first one to help Lily, and she 
trusted you.” 

“Oh, dear!” sniffed Berry, ready to cry as 
she remembered that Lily had not tasted food 
since early morning, and had believed herself de- 
serted by her new friend. 


90 


A YANKEE GIRL 

“ And she came back to do your chores/’ she 
whimpered. “ I’ll make it up to her, so she will 
know I didn’t mean it,” the little girl declared, 
and when Lily brought in the milk it was Berry 
who ran to meet her and declared: 

“Oh, Lily! We couldn’t manage without 
you,” smiling up at the wistful-eyed negro girl, 
who beamed with happiness at the unexpected 
kindness. 

“ I jes’ follered yo’, Missie, ’cos I was feared 
fer yo’,” she whispered. “ I didn’ mean no 
harm! ” 

Berry nodded. She did not want Lily to see 
her cry, and so she ran off to the sitting-room to 
tell her father the good news of Lily’s return. 

As the days passed and no one appeared in 
pursuit of a runaway negro girl, the little house- 
hold in the hillside cabin became sure that, at 
least for a time, Lily was safe, and Mrs. Arnold 
came to feel that Berry might be right in think- 
ing that chance visitors to the cabin would believe 
Lily belonged there, and, as a week went by be- 
fore Mr. Arnold could venture very far from the 
cabin, Lily became Berry’s companion when the 
little girl journeyed down to the mail-box on the 
Corinth road, and in her walks along the moun- 


AT SHILOH 


91 


tain paths. And as the two girls wandered about 
together Lily told her new friend something of 
her pitiful story. 

“ I reckons I had a mammy sometime, but I 
don’ ’member her. I was raised in Alabamy, 
Missie; an’ ev’buddy wus allers a-givin’ me a hit. 
Dey wus, show as yo’ lib! ’Twan’t de Massa 
and Missus, fer dey nebber seem ter see me; 
’twere de niggers in de house dat batted me ’bout, 
an’ I jes’ made up ter run off. I hern de Yankee 
army wus a-comin’ right soon ter set all de slaves 
free. Am dat a fac’, Missie? ” and the negro 
girl fixed her solemn eyes questioningly on the 
face of her little mistress. 

Berry nodded. “ My father says slavery 
must end,” she declared solemnly. 

“ I’se glad! I hopes ebery one ob dem high- 
handed niggers dat batted me ’bout ’ll be set free 
an’ hab ter look arter theirselves. Dat’s wot I 
hopes. Wid no massa or missus ter feed an’ tak’ 
keer ob ’em ! ” said Lily, with a delighted chuckle, 
as if she felt that her wrongs would be punished 
by the freedom of her fellow-servants. 

Berry looked at her in astonishment. “ Didn’t 
you run away to be free, Lily? ” she asked. 

“ Yas, Missie, course I did. Dose niggers 


92 A YANKEE GIRL 

’bused me. I had ter run off ter get clear ob 
’em.” 

“ Then you didn’t run away from a cruel mas- 
ter and mistress?” continued Berry, wonder- 
ingly. 

Lily shook her head. “ I don’ know much 
’bout ole Massa; he go off las’ year ter help 
Massa Jeff ’son Davis win de war, and Missus 
she jes’ went long wid him. I ain’ nuffin ’gainst 
dem ” Lily declared soberly. “ ’Twas dem 
stuck-up niggers dat batted me all de time, dat I 
runs off frum; an’ I jes’ hopes dey is gwine ter 
be set free,” and Lily again chuckled, as if com- 
forted by the possibility that her fellow-servants 
would soon be obliged to look after themselves. 

As soon as they reached home Berry repeated 
the story of Lily’s escape from the Alabama 
plantation. “ She hid in swamps, and crept into 
barns to sleep, and ate corn, and frozen apples, 
and eggs. And it wasn’t her master she ran 
away from!” said Berry, and then told her 
mother what Lily had said. 

“ Then we can feel safe about her not being 
followed, or a reward offered for news of her! ” 
said Mrs. Arnold with evident relief. “ Very 
likely her master does not even know that she has 


AT SHILOH 


93 


run away.” And the little household was no 
longer troubled by anxious fears lest their kind- 
ness to the wandering slave girl might involve 
them in trouble, and Mrs. Arnold felt that Berry 
was much safer in her wanderings about the ra- 
vine with Lily for her companion. 

And Berry soon discovered that the slave girl 
knew many interesting things about the little 
creatures of the forest. It was Lily who discov- 
ered the partridge eggs behind a fallen log not 
far from the cabin and cautioned Berry not to 
go near them or the partridge might desert the 
eggs. “ Jes’ keep ’way from dar, Missie, an’ 
fus’ t’ing dar’ll be a flock of little partridges,” 
she said. And it was Lily who heard the first 
call of the wild geese flying north, one morning 
in early February. It was Lily who tamed the 
two tiny woodland mice that peered out from 
under an old stump one sunny morning when 
Berry and Lily were resting near by. The negro 
girl cautioned Berry to be quiet, and attracted 
the tiny creatures with little calls until they 
stopped and fixed their bright eyes upon her, 
and even ventured near enough to eat bits of 
bread from the girls’ luncheon. For several days 
Berry and Lily made daily trips to the old log 


94 


A YANKEE GIRL 


with food for their new friends, whom they 
named “ Dot ” and “Dash,” and the mice ap- 
parently were always on the watch for them. 

When Mr. Arnold was again able to take his 
usual walks there were many hints of spring 
along the slopes of the ravine, and on one of his 
visits to the highway a traveler told him that the 
forts on the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers 
had been captured on February 16 by General 
Grant, assisted by the fleet of gunboats com- 
manded by Commodore Foote. Fort Donelson 
had been taken, and General Buell was prepar- 
ing to advance against the Confederate army at 
Nashville. 

This was a great success for Northern forces, 
and the Arnolds earnestly hoped might help to 
bring the war to an end. But Mr. Arnold real- 
ized that it must bring the troops of both the 
Confederate and the Union armies further 
south, and who could tell how near the little 
mountain cabin might stand to some future bat- 
tle-field? But he did not mention this anxiety to 
Berry, but cautioned her not to go to the road 
leading to Corinth. And Berry was now count- 
ing the days when the sugar-maples could be 
tapped, and sugar-making begin, when an- 


AT SHILOH 


95 


other adventure befell her that might well have 
proven a dangerous one had it not been for Lily’s 
courage and faithfulness. 


CHAPTER IX 


THE WITCH’S TREE 

“ Mother! Can’t Lily wear those old clothes 
of Francis’s?” Berry asked one March day, 
when Lily had returned from a scramble up the 
ridge, with the old dress of Mrs. Arnold’s, that 
she had worn since coming to the cabin, so badly 
torn by the thorns and underbrush that it was 
no longer fit to wear. 

“ She can’t climb trees, or run as fast as I do, 
or anything in that long skirt,” complained 
Berry, and added quickly, “ And she would like 
to wear things like mine.” 

“ Yas’m! ” Lily agreed hopefully, looking ad- 
miringly at her little mistress. 

“ Why did I not think of it before ! ” exclaimed 
Mrs. Arnold, who had been puzzled to know how 
to obtain clothing for the negro girl. With 
Northern armies advancing into Tennessee, and 
with General Johnston at the head of the South- 
ern forces at Nashville, the family in the moun- 
96 


AT SHILOH 


97 


tain cabin would have no opportunity to procure 
clothing. Mrs. Arnold realized that it might be 
months before it would be safe to venture to any 
of the neighboring towns, and that they must 
take every possible care of their supplies ; there- 
fore Berry’s suggestion that Lily should wear 
the outgrown garments of Francis seemed to 
solve a difficult problem, and Mrs. Arnold, 
closely followed by Berry and Lily, hastened to 
open the old trunk in the small chamber where 
Lily slept, where Francis’s part-worn clothing 
was packed. 

“ Here are some very good shoes,” said Mrs. 
Arnold, as she took out a pair of stout leather 
shoes. “ Try them on, Lily.” The negro girl 
promptly obeyed, and they proved a fairly good 
fit. 

Then Mrs. Arnold drew forth the brown 
corduroy knickerbockers, and the patched flannel 
blouse which her boy, who was now so far away 
with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, had 
worn in the early days of their stay in the moun- 
tain cabin. 

Lily was soon dressed in these comfortable 
garments, and Berry jumped about in delight as 
she exclaimed; “Now, Lily, we’ll see who can 


98 


A YANKEE GIRL 

run the faster, and if I win you can’t say it is be- 
cause you wear long skirts.” 

“ Dat’s de truf, Missie Berry. But I reckons 
yo’ll win anyways,” responded Lily, her solemn 
eyes fixed admiringly on Berry. 

That afternoon Berry raked the leaves from 
her garden bed, and began to make plans for 
the border of wild flowers that she would trans- 
plant from the slopes of the ravine, or from shel- 
tered places in the wood. On the previous day 
she and Lily had discovered the butterwort in 
bloom near the wide brook, where she had en- 
countered the threatening stranger, its pale yel- 
low flowers nodding from their slender stems 
above its flat rosette of curious leaves. It was 
one of the earliest blooms of the year in that part 
of Tennessee, and Berry was eager to bring home 
enough of the plants to brighten her garden bor- 
der, as she knew the butterwort would continue 
to blossom through March; and early in the after- 
noon, with Lily as her companion, she started 
off toward the brook. Lily carried the large 
basket in which they planned to bring the plants 
home. 

There were many hints that spring was close 
at hand. Robins and cardinals flitted about 


AT SHILOH 


99 


among the tree-tops, squirrels scolded and chat- 
tered, and little wood-mice now and then scam- 
pered out from shelter. As the girls came out 
from the forest Berry stopped suddenly and 
looked about in delight. “ The red-bud is in 
blossom ! ” she exclaimed, for the tall, slender 
“ Judas-Trees ” growing along the borders of 
the forest, and standing in small clumps in the 
open clearing, had put forth their crimson buds 
and blossoms, brightening the leafless branches, 
and making the woods glow with color. 

“ I knows dat tree; it’s de witch tree!” Lily 
declared solemnly. “ Dat tree grow all ’bout in 
Alabamy. An’ all de niggers uster tell dat, 
’long ’bout midnight, witches comes ter dese 
trees an’ meets up wid one anudder, an’ makes 
der plans ! ” and Lily shook her head, as if feeling 
it was hardly safe to speak of such dangerous 
subjects. 

“ Do you really believe it is a witch’s tree? ” 
asked Berry. 

“ It shu’ be, Missie. Dat’s de reason it bust 
out, widout a leaf a-showin’, in Feb’ry! Sum ob 
dose Alabamy niggers knows a sight ob t’ings 
’bout witches. Ole mammy, what uster bang me 
right smart all de time I wus a-growin’ up, she 


100 


A YANKEE GIRL 

uster say dat if yo’ could only be near one obi 
dese meetin’s ob witches at dese trees yo’d h’ar 
strange t’ings ! ” replied Lily, rolling her eyes 
solemnly. “ It’s ’long ’bout dis time ob de year, 
w’en de blossoms show dat dey meets up an’ 
makes der plans,” she added. 

“ I wish I could see them,” said Berry thought- 
fully; “ and, if they were good witches, perhaps 
they would tell me where Mollie Bragg is, and 
when she is coming home.” 

“ Dar ain’ no sich thing as a ‘ good 9 witch, 
Missie!” said Lily. “ I reckons dey might tell 
yo’ w’ot yo’ wants ter know if yo’ wus ter mak’ 
’em promises,” she added thoughtfully. 

Berry was now eager to know all that Lily 
could tell her, and, forgetting all about the but- 
terwort, the two girls seated themselves on a moss- 
covered log near the “ red-bud ” trees, and Lily 
began the story she had so often heard on the 
Alabama plantation, of the proper way to se- 
cure the friendly assistance of a witch. 

“’Course, Missie, yo’ knows jes’ w’ot a witch is. 
Dey’s a kind ob black woman, wid wings. An’ 
sometimes dey ain’ no bigger dan a spider, an’ 
ag’in, dey’s big as a house! I knows all ’bout 
’em! ” declared Lily. “ I wus bro’t up ’mongst 


101 


AT SHILOH 

niggers w’ot had seen ’em! Yas, ’deed dey did! ” 
and Lily nodded her woolly head so solemnly 
that Berry was convinced that her companion 
could tell her exactly the right manner to win 
the friendship of these powerful creatures who 
met at midnight beneath the blossoming Judas- 
tree. 

“ Yo’ has ter take a sight ob trubble, Missie, 
ter meet up wid a witch, an’ I dunno as I orter 
tell yo’,” and Lily cast a troubled glance at her 
young mistress. 

“ Of course you must tell me, Lily!” Berry 
insisted eagerly. “ Just telling me what people 
do to get a promise from a witch can’t do me any 
harm. And sometime it might be a great help,” 
she urged. 

“ Dat’s so, Missie,” Lily agreed thoughtfully, 
and, with a cautious look toward the flaming red- 
buds, as if even in daylight some careless witch 
might forget herself and appear at the chosen 
meeting-place of her kind, the negro girl drew 
a long breath and, leaning nearer to Berry, be- 
gan, in almost a whisper, to tell the proper way to 
gain the favor of witches. 

“ Fus’ t’ing ter do, Missie, is ter chuse de right 
time o’ de moon. If dar be a moon showin’ clar 


102 A YANKEE GIRL 

at midnight 'tain’ no use! De berry bes’ time 
am de dark ob de moon. An’ yo’ mus’ be mighty 
near de tree, so’s if de witches be de small kind 
yo’ kin see ’em. But yo’ mus’n’ let ’em see yo’ ! 
’Deed yo’ mus’n’, Missie! ” 

Berry nodded solemnly, and leaned a little 
nearer to her companion. 

“An 3 yo’ mus’ fetch t’ings de witches likes. 
Dey is special fond ob fine honey,” continued 
Lily. “ Fac’ is, dey likes sweet t’ings mighty 
well. Dat ole mammy I tells vo’ ’bout, who 
banged me ’bout so, she uster mak’ ’er fine cake 
long ’bout time de witch-tree blossom, an’ put it 
near de trees com’ dark, and dey witches allers 
kerry it off ’fore mornin’; dey shu did. I kinder 
’magines dat ole mammy wus a relation to dem 
witches,” said Lily thoughtfully. 

“And what else, Lily? What else?” de- 
manded Berry eagerly. 

“ Wal, Missie, I reckon dat am ’bout all: ter 
put de sweet t’ings near de tree, an’ ter hide up 
dost so’s dey won’ see yo’, an’ den, w’en de hour 
of midnight come, an’ dar ain’ no moon ter be 
seen, and eberyt’ing am all black, den w’en de 
witches, each one ob dem carryin’ a lille shinin’ 
light on der heads, w’en dey begins to gather 


103 


AT SHILOH 

’roun 5 de tree, den speak sof’ an’ remin’s ’em ob 
de t’ings yo’ set out fer ’em, an’ ask ’em w’ot 
yo’ wants ter know,” replied Lily, adding 
quickly, “ ’Course dey mek yo’ promise ter do 
w’otever dey wants yo’ ter promise, an’ I’se heard 
tell dat if yo’ don’ promise quick dey binds yo’ 
up ter de tree an’ leabs yo’.” 

Berry drew a long breath as Lily finished. 
The little girl was quite ready to believe that this 
negro girl really was sure in regard to the witches 
and their power. 

“ If I can find out about Mollie, and perhaps 
send her a message, it will be splendid,” thought 
Berry; and then made the decision to try and 
win the favor of the witches who made the Judas- 
tree their meeting-place. But she said nothing 
to Lily of this resolve, and, as the negro girl took 
up the basket and they made their way to the 
borders of the stream where the butterwort was 
in blossom, neither of the girls even imagined 
that, close to the log where they sat, a man had 
been hiding behind the underbrush; a tall man, 
whose face was nearly covered by a brown beard; 
he wore a round, close-fitting cap of coonskin, a 
leather jacket, stout corduroy breeches, and high 
boots. A hunter’s belt held a revolver and a 


104 A YANKEE GIRL 

hunting-knife, and if Berry could have had even 
a glimpse of this skulking figure she would have 
at once recognized him as the threatening stran- 
ger whom she had encountered near this very 
spot nearly two months earlier. 

The man chuckled to himself as he watched 
the girls go down the little slope to the stream. 
“ Berry has a nigger boy with him nowadays, 
eh!” he reflected. “That witch-story may 
be a help later on, for that white boy means to 
find out more about witches. Well, I’ll send 
him over the road to Corinth at a good pace, or 
know why, when the time comes,” he concluded, 
and slunk away in the forest. The man was a 
spy in the employ of the Confederate army, and 
was now traveling back along their line 
of defense, carrying messages from General 
Breckinridge, commander of the Confederate 
reserves, who, only a little more than a year 
earlier, had been Vice-President of the United 
States, to General Beauregard, whose plan to 
concentrate the Confederate army of the Mis- 
sissippi at Corinth was to bring about one of the 
greatest battles of the Civil War, the Battle of 
Shiloh. 

The name of this man was Orson. He real- 


105 


AT SHILOH 

ized that the time was close at hand when a swift- 
footed messenger might be of the utmost impor- 
tance, and in “ Berry Nees,” he believed he had 
discovered such a messenger. Orson was still 
sure Berry was a lad from some remote cabin, 
and meant very soon to make Berry prove the 
boast of being a fleet runner. 


CHAPTER X 


BERRY IN DANGER 

Lily was interested in all the tiny wild crea- 
tures who lived along the mountain slopes, or 
made their homes near the creeks. She had queer 
names for many of these, calling the foxes “ Sly- 
foot,” and telling Berry many stories of the 
cleverness of Reynard. “ Some darkies knows 
jes’ how ter talk ter de wil’ animiles. Dey shure 
does, Missie Berry. Dey knows w’ot ter say ter 
de fox. Dat same ole mammy w’ot tell me ’bout 
de witch tree she know how ter talk ter a fox or 
a sheep, or to de hawks dat hover ’roun’. She say 
to Sly-foot: ‘ Be yo’ a good fox, or be yo’ snoopin’ 
’roun’ after chickens?’ an’ she know by de way 
de fox look dat he unnerstood. Mebbe de fox 
talk back, I dunno ’bout dat,” Lily would con- 
clude soberly; and as the two girls wandered 
about the mountain trails Lily’s keen eyes were 
always searching path and thicket for a sight of 
some well-concealed nest or the hiding-place of 
tiny woodland creatures. Of each one of these 
106 


AT SHILOH 


107 


she would have some story to tell, either of the 
way the birds built their nests, or of how weasels 
would spring from unseen coverts upon rabbits 
or squirrels. 

Lily had made a rough bag of a piece of cloth 
that she had begged from Mrs. Arnold, and 
Berry noticed that the negro girl was always on 
the alert to discover and secure any feather that 
might drift across their path, or that had lodged 
on some wayside bush. Lily had fastened this 
bag to her belt, and not a day passed that some 
downy feather was not secured and safely put 
away. Sometimes she would be fortunate enough 
to discover a tiny red feather of the scarlet 
tanager, or perhaps a blue-edged quill from the 
blue jay, and on these fortunate occasions she 
would rejoice triumphantly. “Dat shure am 
fine ! ” she would exclaim with chuckles of delight. 

“ What do you want with all those feathers, 
Lily? ” Berry would ask, but Lily would only 
nod and say: 

“ Jes’ yo’ wait, Missie Berry. Some day yo’s 
gwine ter be s’prised ! ” and after a while Berry 
ceased to question her, believing that the gather- 
ing of these tiny feathers was only another of 
Lily’s peculiar ways. 


108 


A YANKEE GIRL 


Beside securing birds’ feathers Lily was al- 
ways searching for the strong, pliant grasses that 
grew near the creeks. She would cut these 
grasses close to the ground with the greatest care, 
and tie them together. One day as the two girls 
climbed the slope toward Shiloh church Lily sud- 
denly exclaimed: 

“ Dar! I b’en a-lookin’ fer cedar, and har it 
be,” and she left the trail and began to tug at the 
small trailing roots of a cedar tree. With the 
small knife that Lily always carried she cut and 
dug up portions of these roots, and then scraped 
off the soft bark, nodding and smiling her 
satisfaction. Berry’s mind was entirely filled 
with possible plans for visiting the blossoming 
red-bud trees at midnight, and with securing the 
necessary gifts by which the witches were to be 
made friendly and willing to answer her ques- 
tions in regard to Mollie Bragg. A fine cake was 
not an easy thing to secure. The Arnolds’ store 
of sugar was now very small, and Berry remem- 
bered that, in order to make the birthday cake for 
Mollie, her mother had said they must henceforth 
be careful in their use of sugar. Beside that, 
Berry could not offer a good reason in asking 
her mother to make a cake. 


AT SHILOH 


109 


There was, however, no lack of honey in the 
mountain cabin, for, in the early autumn, Mr. 
Arnold had the good fortune to discover a 
“ honey-tree,” a partly hollow tree where wild 
bees had stored up honey, and Berry remembered 
with satisfaction that her mother had declared it 
to be of the finest quality. The little girl knew 
she could easily secure enough of this store of 
honey to satisfy any witch. But Lily had de- 
clared that witches were not easily influenced to 
friendly deeds, and Berry felt that the cake must 
in some way be obtained, and as soon as possible ; 
for, with the approach of spring, Berry missed 
Mollie more and more, and was eager to try any 
plan by which she might get news of her absent 
playmate. 

At the beginning of March, the week after 
Berry first heard of the possibility of securing 
the good-will of midnight witches, Mr. Arnold 
received news that General Buell, in command 
of Union forces in East Tennessee, had captured 
Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, and that 
General Johnston and the Confederate troops 
had moved southward to Murfreesboro. Thus, 
while the Confederates had won all the earlier bat- 
tles of the conflict along the eastern line of de- 


110 


A YANKEE GIRL 


fense, the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Don- 
elson, and the taking of Nashville had restored 
the confidence of the North, and created vague 
terrors in the South. 

Berry heard her father and mother discuss 
these happenings, and her father even declared 
that if General Johnston, with his army of 
20,000 men, should join General Beauregard at 
Corinth, there would be 50,000 Confederate 
troops ready to meet General Grant’s army if 
he moved against such a stronghold. 

“Where would Grant’s army come from?” 
Berry asked eagerly. “ Would it march up the 
road from Pittsburg Landing? Oh! I could 
see it march from the big oak tree that hangs 
over the ravine! ” she exclaimed eagerly. 

“ Very likely Grant’s soldiers may be landed 
at Pittsburg and march over the ravine road,” 
Mr. Arnold responded thoughtfully; “but, if 
they do, we may not know anything about it. 
Armies do not advertise the time of their arrival, 
my dear. And, for my part, I hope General 
Grant will choose another approach to Corinth. 
But you must promise me, Berry, not to go near 
the ravine road. Even now the Confederates 
may be on guard at Pittsburg Landing, and we 


AT SHILOH 


111 


must all do our best to keep near the cabin until 
we really know what Grant will do.” 

Berry promised, a little reluctantly. Pitts- 
burg Landing was so far from the hillside cabin 
that Berry thought the road from there to 
Corinth, that led through a ravine not far dis- 
tant, would be safe enough, even with soldiers at 
each end of it; and if armies, by any chance, 
should march that way Berry felt it a great pity 
to miss so wonderful a sight, for she was too 
young to realize all the terror and suffering 
brought by war, and she had not the faintest idea 
how soon she was to be almost in the centre of 
one of the most terrific battles of the Civil War 
up to the spring of 1862 : the Battle of Shiloh. 

When her father spoke of General Grant’s 
probable advance against Johnston’s army, 
Berry’s thoughts were chiefly occupied with 
plans for a midnight visit to the Judas-tree, and 
she did not really believe it possible that troops 
might soon be on the march along those quiet 
roads near her home. It was now early March; 
Mrs. Arnold and Lily were busy with making a 
supply of soap: setting a barrel half -filled with 
ashes over which water was turned, and which 
was called the “ leach-barrel,” to drip into a big 


112 


A YANKEE GIRL 

iron kettle; then the scraps of fat, that had been 
carefully saved for months, were boiled down 
over a fire in the yard, and strained ; the lye from 
the wood-ashes was added, and again boiled, and 
a good supply of soft soap was the result. 

These yard fires had to be carefully watched 
and tended; the soft soap, in its last process of 
boiling, had to be frequently stirred, and Berry 
and Lily spent the greater part of several days 
in the yard tending fires and kettles. 

Beside soap-making there were other spring- 
time affairs that required attention; it w r as time 
to tap the sugar-maples in the little grove on a 
distant hillside, and Mr. Arnold had begun to 
spade the plot used for a vegetable garden, so 
that every member of the little household was 
busy, and, until the day set for the visit to the 
maple grove, Berry and Lily did not go outside 
the fenced-in space about the cabin. 

The day set for the visit to the maples was 
clear and sunny, and it was decided that the en- 
tire family should go, have a picnic dinner, and 
spend the greater part of the day on the hillside. 

“ We will find arbutus in bloom,” said Mrs. 
Arnold, as they started out, Berry and Lily lead- 
ing the way along the woodland paths. Berry 


113 


AT SHILOH 

had now discarded the long-legged leather boots 
that she had worn during the winter months, and 
wore moccasins, that Mr. Arnold had made for 
her, and as she went rapidly along the leaf -cov- 
ered trail she made no more noise than a wood- 
land squirrel. 

Berry and her father tapped the maples: this 
was done by making a small incision into the 
trunk of the tree about two feet above the 
ground, inserting a tiny spout, and setting a pail 
under it to hold the sap; the next morning Mr. 
Arnold would come and gather the sap, turn 
it into a large kettle, and boil it down to a 
syrup. 

While Berry and her father went from tree to 
tree, Mrs. Arnold and Lily searched the hillside 
for the arbutus blossoms, and carefully placed 
damp moss about the blooms they gathered to 
keep them fresh. 

Mr. Arnold was busy with his work and did 
not notice when Berry wandered farther up the 
hillside, and when he had finished setting the 
pails, and the little girl was not to be seen, he 
supposed she was with her mother and Lily 
searching for arbutus, and looked about for a 
suitable place to start a fire over which to boil the 


114 


A YANKEE GIRL 


coffee, and cook the bacon and potatoes for their 
out-of-door dinner. When this was well under 
way he opened the basket containing the food, 
and decided to surprise Mrs. Arnold by having 
the meal all ready before calling her, and it was 
nearly an hour later when his familiar whistle 
brought Mrs. Arnold, closely followed by Lily, 
scrambling up the hillside, each carrying a 
clumsily-made basket of twisted spruce and fir 
branches well filled with moss and the delicate, 
fragrant arbutus blossoms. 

“ It is like a May day! ” Mrs. Arnold declared 
smilingly. “And how good that bacon smells! 
Frederic, I never was so hungry,” and seating 
herself a short distance from the glowing bed of 
coals over which the bacon was cheerfully siz- 
zling, Mrs. Arnold looked about for her little 
daughter, thinking Berry was close at hand. 

Mr. Arnold refused any assistance, declaring 
no one could broil bacon over a wood fire as per- 
fectly as he could do it; and not until Mrs. Ar- 
nold had been served with a well-roasted potato, 
bacon, and a plate of biscuit from the lunch 
basket set beside her, did Berry’s father and 
mother look about for her, and then discovered 
that Lily had also disappeared. 


AT SHILOH 


11 5 


“ Berry can’t be as hungry as I am or she 
would be on hand,” said Mrs. Arnold, as the 
sound of Mr. Arnold’s whistle echoed along the 
hillside. 

“ Hunting for flowers, but she’ll soon be here, 
with Lily at her heels,” responded Mr. Arnold, 
and added: “ I wonder if we shall ever see little 
Mollie Bragg again? ” 

“ I am sure we will,” Mrs. Arnold replied. 
“ Poor child, I am glad she was not taken away 
before we could give her a happy birthday to re- 
member,” and, talking of the Braggs, the time 
sped by, and yet no sign or sound of Berry or 
Lily. But neither Mr. nor Mrs. Arnold felt 
anxious as to the girls’ safety. Berry had her 
whistle, which she would surely sound if in any 
danger, and, with Lily close at hand, it did not 
seem probable that any accident had befallen 
their little daughter, and only the fact that the 
potatoes and bacon would not keep hot at last 
decided Mr. Arnold to repeat his call, and finally 
to start back toward the maple grove in search of 
Berry, quite sure that he would find Lily with 
her. 

Berry had not intended to go out of sight of 
her father when she wandered up the ridge, but 


116 


A YANKEE GIRL 


the discovery of an unexpected trillium in blos- 
som led her to go further on hoping to find more, 
and, by the time her father had started his fire, 
Berry was on the further slope, out of hearing 
of Mr. Arnold’s shrill whistle. She had just de- 
cided to turn back when she noticed a tiny thread 
of smoke creeping up behind a ledge. Berry 
knew the dangers of a forest fire, and, thinking 
some careless woodsman had failed to put out his 
fire, she promptly started toward the smoke, 
meaning to put out the fire. Her moccasin-cov- 
ered feet made no noise as Berry climbed over 
the ledge. As she looked down toward the thread 
of smoke Berry nearly lost her balance: for, just 
below, not twenty feet from the ledge of rocks 
where she crouched, was the threatening stranger 
whom she had met at the brook in January, and 
who had mistaken her for a boy. The man was 
crouched near a tiny fire over which he was roast- 
ing a partridge. If he had not been so intent 
upon his cooking he might have become conscious 
that someone was very close to him, for Orson 
was a thorough woodsman, with every sense on 
the alert. Berry, looking down upon him, real- 
ized that the man was camping there, as a rough 
shelter of boughs stood near by. She resolved 


AT SHILOH 


117 


to slip away as noiselessly as possible; with her 
eyes still fixed on the crouching figure, she 
cautiously moved one foot, and then the other, 
backward, holding to the rocks with both hands. 
There was a little noiseless movement along the 
ledge, and Berry felt both her feet held; a loose 
rock, started by her movements, had been gradu- 
ally slipping, and now held Berry a prisoner. It 
had rolled against her ankles binding her to the 
side of the ledge. 

“ What can I do? ” she wondered. To sound 
her whistle, even to endeavor to push the rock 
away, would instantly bring the man leaping up 
the ledge. “ I must get clear myself, some 
way ! ” she resolved, but she could think of no 
way to free herself. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE 

Lily’s wanderings during her flight from the 
Alabama plantation had made her alert and 
watchful of every woodland noise and sign. 
Since Berry had not come down the ridge with 
Mr. Arnold, Lily was sure she had followed a 
wandering path leading to the summit, and the 
negro girl sped swiftly along. At first she 
thought of calling her young mistress’s name, but 
her instinct for silence prevented this, and, as she 
found herself facing the ledge where Berry was 
held prisoner by the rock that had slipped against 
her ankles, Lily had no impulse to cry out. As 
quietly as Berry herself she crept down close to 
the ledge, and noticing the thread of smoke a 
dreadful fear took possession of her. 

“ Lak as not it’s fo’ks a-huntin’ fer me. My 
lan’! W’ot I better do? ” was her first thought; 
then her eyes turned toward the girl clinging to 
the ledge, the girl who had been the first to speak 
kindly to the fugitive slave girl, and instantly 
118 



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AT SHILOH 


119 


Lily recalled all Berry's kindness had meant to 
her. and she forgot her fears for her own safety, 
and thought only of her young mistress. 

“ She be 'fraid ob dat man a-campin’ down 
dar,” she instantly decided, as peering from be- 
hind a sheltering tree she discovered Orson, still 
intent on his roasting bird. Lily crept up the 
ledge, whispering softly: “ Missie Berry — Missie 
Berry," and Berry turned her head to find Lily's 
hand near her shoulder. 

Without a word Berry pointed to the heavy 
rock resting against her ankles, and then toward 
the camp beneath the ledge, and shook her head 
solemnly, and Lily promptly understood that 
Berry feared to be discovered. Lily nodded her 
understanding of the message and cautiously 
worked her way to a place where she could make 
an effort to release Berry’s feet. Pulling with all 
her strength she was able to raise the heavy stone 
so that Berry could draw herself free from its 
hold, and then, noiselessly as before, the negro 
girl lowered the stone gently back, and the two 
girls crept down the ledge and were soon safely 
in the shelter of the forest. Neither of them had 
spoken a single word since Lily’s whisper when 
she reached the ledge. 


120 A YANKEE GIRL 

But now Berry turned quickly to her compan- 
ion and said gratefully: “ Oh, Lily! What 
would I have done if you had not found me! 
And how clever you were to come so quietly! 
That’s the man who threatened me near the 
brook, before you came,” she added as they hur- 
ried up the rough slope. 

“Dat man a-searchin’ af’er me!” Lily de- 
clared solemnly. “ Oh, Missie Berry, don’ let 
him tek me! He’s de kin’ dat sells black fo’ks. 
I’se seen black fo’ks all chain’ togedder, Missie 
Berry, a-standin’ at railway stations to be tuk 
off.” And Lily trembled at the thought of being 
discovered. 

At that moment, before Berry could reply, 
Mr. Arnold’s shrill whistle reached their ears and 
Berry instantly responded, and Lily had only 
time to say: “Don’ say a wud ’bout dat man; 
don’, Missie Berry! Promise!” she pleaded so 
urgently that Berry agreed. 

“ But I know he isn’t after you, Lily,” she 
added, as they ran forward to meet Mr. Arnold. 

“ Oh, Father! I got my feet caught in a ledge, 
and Lily helped me out,” she explained hur- 
riedly; “ and we’re both hungry.” 

Mrs. Arnold had contrived to keep the pota- 


AT SHILOH 


121 


toes hot, and the two girls made an excellent 
lunch, while Berry told of finding the trillium 
blossom, and of climbing a ledge, and a rock roll- 
ing against her ankles. 

“ Lily came just in time, and moved the rock 
so gently that my ankles don’t hurt a bit,” said 
Berry; while Lily listened, fearful that some 
careless word might betray the secret. But Mrs. 
Arnold hurried them all toward home, as the 
March day was drawing toward sunset, and on 
the way Berry found a chance to tell Lily that 
the man they had seen was probably a Confeder- 
ate spy. “ My father says that General Beaure- 
gard has a Confederate army at Corinth, and 
probably this man is watching to see if General 
Grant’s soldiers are coming this way,” she ex- 
plained to the frightened negro girl, and her ex- 
planation was the right one. Orson knew that 
numbers of Confederate soldiers were daily ar- 
riving from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, 
in regiments, squads, or unarmed and singly at 
Corinth. All these were being formed into the 
Confederate army of the Mississippi, with Gen- 
eral Johnston in supreme command, and with 
the brave and accomplished Beauregard as sec- 
ond. Supplies for this army reached Corinth 


122 


A YANKEE GIRL 


over all railroads. Spies were bringing daily re- 
ports of the progress of Grant’s army, and of 
General Buell’s rapid approach from Columbia; 
and Orson was lurking along the roads from 
Pittsburg Landing to Corinth, ready to carry, 
or send, instant news of any approach of the 
enemy over these roads. 

But Lily shook her head over Berry’s expla- 
nation. 

“ He luk jes’ lak de men dat hunt af’er de 
run’ way niggers ! ” she insisted, and so Berry 
again agreed not to tell her father of her dis- 
covery of the camping spy. 

Orson knew of the Arnolds’ cabin, but kept a 
good distance from it, although he believed it the 
cabin of some industrious mountaineer who was, 
without doubt, loyal to the Confederacy. He 
had seen Lily and Berry more than once, unseen 
by them, and supposed Lily to be a negro boy, 
owned by the Arnolds. He meant, at the right 
moment, to send “ Berry Nees ” speeding over 
the road to Corinth with news for General 
Beauregard. He kept a nightly watch by the 
“ witch-tree ” to see if Berry had brought the 
sweets that would mean a midnight visit, and, on 
the second evening after the Arnolds’ visit to the 


AT SHILOH 


123 


maple grove, his watch was rewarded: for close 
against the trees rested a number of small pack- 
ages. 

Orson had no scruples in examining these. 
One contained a glass tumbler filled with honey, 
over which the spy chuckled, thinking it would 
be an acceptable addition to his somewhat limited 
food supply. In another package was a square 
of maple-sugar, made from the fresh syrup. 
There was also a small square cake, sweetened 
with maple-sugar, that Berry had persuaded her 
mother to make for her that morning. For 
Berry had noticed that the red-buds were begin- 
ning to fade, the leaves rapidly covering such 
blossoms as remained, and, by cautiously ques- 
tioning Lily, she discovered that unless the tree 
were in bloom the witches were not apt to visit 
them, and she realized she must lose no time in 
asking their help for news of Mollie. 

Berry found no trouble in carrying her gifts 
to the red-buds near the stream, for that after- 
noon Lily had gone with Mrs. Arnold to bring 
home the syrup that Mr. Arnold had made, leav- 
ing Berry alone in the cabin. And she collected 
her supplies and hastened off to leave them at the 
red-buds, in order that the witches might not fail 


124 


A YANKEE GIRL 

to find them on their arrival, and she was resolved 
to be on hand when the witches appeared at mid- 
night, although she was a little fearful that it 
might not be an easy matter to keep awake until 
the time came to leave the cabin, or to creep out 
without being discovered by her mother or fa- 
ther. Nevertheless she was resolved to make the 
attempt, for it seemed to Berry as if she could 
get news from Mollie in no other way than 
through the friendly help of witches, who were 
new possibilities in Berry’s experience. 

The sky clouded over before Mrs. Arnold and 
Lily returned, and by sunset a strong wind was 
sweeping along the ridge. 

“ Dis am a reg’lar witch’s night! I ’clar ter 
goodness if ’tain’t!” said Lily, as Berry helped 
her wash the supper dishes. “ De win’ am 
a-shreekin’ an’ a-hollerin’ jes’ de way witches 
lik’s,” continued Lily; “ dey’ll all be out ter- 
night, I specs,” and she rolled her eyes solemnly 
and shook her head. 

Berry made no response. She heard the wind 
moaning and shrieking, as the big branches of the 
forest trees bent before it, and began to dread 
the undertaking that was before her. She was so 
quiet in the early evening that her mother was 


AT SHILOH 


125 


sure Berry must be more tired than usual, and 
suggested that the little girl go to bed. Lily 
had already gone to her room, and Mrs. Arnold 
declared that she herself was too sleepy to sit up, 
and at an unusually early hour the lights in the 
little cabin were extinguished, and the entire 
household, excepting Berry, were fast asleep. 

In her own room, still fully dressed, Berry sat 
on the edge of her bed waiting for the clock to 
strike eleven, the time she had set to leave the 
cabin. More than once she dozed off, to wake 
with a sudden start fearful lest she had over- 
slept. But when the clock in the sitting-room 
sounded the hour of eleven Berry was wide 
awake. Her window, that opened outward on 
hinges, was already partly open, and Berry’s 
moccasin-covered feet made no noise as she 
crossed the room, cautiously swung the latticed 
window wide open and fastened it hack, and then, 
reaching out, grasped the strong branch of the 
big oak tree, that grew close to the cabin, and 
fearlessly swung herself clear of the window-sill. 

Berry had done this many times; it was no new 
exploit for the little girl to scramble along the 
stout branch and down the trunk of the oak tree 
to a secure footing on the slope of the ravine be- 


126 


A YANKEE GIRL 

low her window ; she stood silent a moment, look- 
ing up at the cabin. Then, sure that no one had 
heard her quiet escape, she crept up to the trail 
and was off toward the witches’ tree. 

The wind swept against her, and the trees of 
the forest creaked and swayed: the night was too 
dark even for shadows, and Berry, with a little 
thrill of fear, recalled Lily’s words that it “ was 
a reg’lar witch’s night.” 

As she neared the brook she saw a tiny light 
near the place where she had left her gifts, and 
stopped suddenly; then, remembering that Lily 
had said witches usually carried tiny lanterns, she 
drew a long breath, and stepped boldly forward, 
bowing very low, according to Lily’s directions, 
and putting both hands over her eyes: for Lily 
had said it would be a fatal thing to let your eyes 
rest upon a witch. 


CHAPTER XII 

orson’s mistake 

With bent head and covered eyes Berry stum- 
bled toward the trees, and at the sound of her 
approach Orson promptly extinguished his pipe ; 
the tiny light, that Berry had mistaken for a 
witch lantern, having been the match he had used 
in lighting it. 

The little girl had just reached the clump of 
trees when, close at hand, a high-pitched voice 
called: “Halt! What seek ye at the witch- 
tree? ” 

Orson was so close to Berry that he could have 
touched her, and Berry gave a little gasp of 
terror at the sound of a voice coming, apparently, 
from the tree itself. But her question was ready, 
and, although her voice faltered a little, Orson 
could hear distinctly. 

“If you please, kind witch, I want to know 
where Mollie Bragg is, and when I will see her? ” 
said Berry. 

“ Do you intend to obey, and promise what I 
127 


128 A YANKEE GIRL 

require, if I answer? ” growled the voice, so near 
to Berry that she gave a little backward start. 

To obey a witch seemed rather a dreadful un- 
dertaking, but Berry did not hesitate. “I do!” 
she faltered. 

“ ’Tis well! You promise to come to this tree 
each day: to look under a flat rock at its roots, 
and when you find a letter there to take it and 
run your swiftest until you give it to the person 
whose name is written upon it? ” growled the 
voice. 

“ I promise,” said Berry. 

It seemed to the little girl that the witch 
chuckled, and then there was a moment’s si- 
lence. The wind died away, the thrashing 
branches of the forest trees gradually lessened, 
stars shone out from among the drifting clouds, 
and the darkness of the night grew less dense. 
Berry heard the movement of some large body 
close beside her, and knew that the witch would 
soon vanish. 

“ But tell me of Mollie? ” she called anxiously. 

“ Boy ! Mollie will soon return; watch for let- 
ters,” came the response from some little distance. 
And now Berry uncovered her eyes and lifted 
her bowed head. 


AT SHILOH 


129 


Boy! ’ ” she repeated in amazement. 
“ Witches don’t know everything after all! ” she 
decided, “ and it was so dark how could it see I 
didn’t wear a dress? ” And Berry was conscious 
of a vague disappointment, as she turned back 
toward the cabin. But the “witch” had said 
Mollie would soon return ; and Berry told herself 
that this news was worth all her trouble. Then 
she recalled her promise, and wondered about the 
letter. To carry a witch’s letter would, she 
thought, be something that had never before hap- 
pened to a little girl. She wished she could tell 
her mother of this wonderful encounter with a 
witch ; but Lily had said that one must never tell 
of such things or the witches would be angry. 
So Berry made her way back through the shad- 
owy forest, climbed into her chamber- window, 
and crept noiselessly into bed. But she lay long 
awake thinking over her wonderful adventure at 
the witch’s tree. 

Orson was well pleased at his success in secur- 
ing “ Berry Nees’s ” promise to watch for any 
message the “ witch ” might leave at the J udas- 
tree. He lurked behind a stout oak until the lit- 
tle girl had made her way up the trail, and then 
started back toward his camp. If this “ boy ” 


180 


A YANKEE GIRL 

could run as fast as Berry had boasted he knew it 
might prove the means of defeating General 
Grant when that officer should decide to attack 
the Confederates, and assured himself that he 
had been very clever indeed in making Berry be- 
lieve that she had really encountered a witch. 

Orson knew that Grant was determined to 
push on to the Memphis and Charleston railroad, 
and that Beauregard hoped to surprise and cap- 
ture the Union Army of the Cumberland. To 
send the Confederate General news of Grant’s 
approach would be a great triumph for this spy, 
and might, as he well realized, bring him a re- 
ward in the approval of Jefferson Davis, the 
head of the Southern Confederacy. It was 
therefore natural that he should think himself 
very clever in securing Berry’s promise to become 
his messenger. Ever since he had overheard 
Lily’s story of the witch-tree he had lurked about 
the place, confident that “ Berry Nees ” intended 
to ask a favor of the witches ; and, on discovering 
the honey and cake he had promptly established 
himself close to the tree, thinking if Berry braved 
the darkness and the high wind it would be a good 
proof of “ the boy’s” courage; and Orson was 
well pleased to find Berry so fearless. “ Plucky 


AT SHILOH 


131 


little chap,” he thought approvingly, and almost 
regretted that he had not openly told Berry the 
service he meant to ask. But, on the whole, he 
decided he had chosen the better way. He was 
glad that he could now start off toward the Ten- 
nessee River, where he could keep a sharp out- 
look for any advance of the Union army. 

Berry had not the slightest idea as she sped 
along through the darkness that close behind her 
came Lily; or that, when the voice had called, 
“ Halt! ” Lily, trembling with terror, had never- 
theless moved a step nearer to her little mistress, 
ready, if need be, to risk any danger to herself in 
defense of Berry. She had been so frightened at 
Berry’s question that it was a wonder she had not 
screamed aloud ; but when Orson responded, call- 
ing Berry 44 Boy,” Lily regained her courage. 

“Dat ain’ no witch !** she promptly decided; 
for the negroes of the Southern plantations 
firmly believed in the existence of unseen crea- 
tures, which they called witches, that knew far 
more than mortals ; and Lily was sure that a true 
witch could not be deceived, and instantly she re- 
membered the man Berry had met at the brook 
and whom they had seen at his forest camp. 

“ I reckon dat man am a makin’ believe jes’ ter 


132 


A YANKEE GIRL 


skeer my Missie, or else he be up to somethin’,” 
decided Lily; and, as Berry turned toward home, 
Lily moved quickly after the shadowy figure 
that was rapidly making its way from tree to 
tree. 

It did not take Lily long to discover that she 
was right in her suspicion, and to recognize the 
tall, shadowy figure as that of the woodsman 
whom she had seen roasting a partridge near the 
ledge where she had discovered Berry. 

“ De misserbul critter,” Lily muttered angrily 
to herself ; “ an’ who know w’ot place he wan’ my 
missie ter kerry a letter to? I jes’ kal’ate I’ll 
get dat air letter,” and Lily now hastened after 
Berry, reaching the cabin just in time to see her 
young mistress clamber into the open window. 

With a sigh of relief Lily crept silently to her 
own room. Although she had gone to sleep very 
early that evening she had awakened an hour be- 
fore Berry left the cabin, and, prompted by a 
vague fear in regard to the safety of her young 
mistress, Lily had cautiously made her way 
through the shadowy rooms to the door of 
Berry’s chamber and curled herself up there. 
Her quick ear had instantly followed Berry’s 
movement toward the window, and she had been 


AT SHILOH 


133 


close behind the adventurous little girl as Berry 
scrambled down the trunk of the oak tree. 

Both the girls slept late the next morning, and 
Mrs. Arnold watched Berry a little anxiously, 
for the little girl seemed unusually serious. “ I 
believe Berry misses Mollie Bragg more than we 
have realized,” she said to Mr. Arnold, after 
Berry had gone out to work in her garden, where 
the iris was already several inches high and where 
the transplanted butter wort was in blossom. 

“ I should not be surprised if the Braggs re- 
turn to their cabin,” Mr. Arnold replied ; 
“ Bragg is such a coward that the sight of the 
marching troops, of either the Confederate or 
Union army, will start him off; and he will not be 
welcomed by any community where brave men 
are willing to fight for what they believe to be 
right.” 

It was very hard for Mr. Arnold to feel that 
he could not serve his country. He realized now 
that from this remote cabin, perched on the side 
of a ridge of the mountains of Tennessee, he 
might watch the advance of General Grant’s 
army of the Cumberland moving toward Corinth 
to attack the forces of General Johnston. Not 
for a moment did Mr. Arnold imagine that the 


134 


A YANKEE GIRL 


task of the Union army would be one of defense, 
or that on the heights of Shiloh the Confederates 
would surprise and very nearly overcome the 
Army of the Cumberland; nor could it possibly 
occur to him that his small daughter was to ren- 
der a great service to the Union cause, and to be 
long remembered as “ The Yankee Girl of Shi- 
loh.” 

Berry, busy in her garden, thought over her 
adventure of the previous night and wondered if 
the “ witch ” was right in saying that Mollie 
would soon return. “ Father thinks they will 
come back,” she reminded herself; for Berry 
could not forget that the witch had failed to dis- 
cover that it was a little girl who had asked assist- 
ance. Nevertheless, Berry was resolved that not 
a day should pass without her visiting the clump 
of red-buds near the stream, that she might keep 
her promise to the witch and deliver any letter 
she might find there. And, quite unknown to 
her young mistress, Lily had resolved to be the 
first to discover any letter hidden at the witch’s 
tree. 

“An’ I’ll tek dat letter right ter Massa Ar- 
nold. Dat’s w’ot I’ll do. Mebbe ’tis ’bout me,” 
Lily decided firmly. 


CHAPTER XIII 


BERRY RECEIVES A MESSAGE 

Lily’s “ feather-bag,” as Berry called the re- 
ceptacle in which the negro girl so carefully stored 
each feather that she could secure, was missing 
from her belt one morning, and Berry at once 
announced the fact. 

“Your feather-bag, Lily! Have you forgot- 
ten it? ” she asked, as Lily appeared at the corner 
of the cabin and stood watching Berry who was 
busily engaged in transplanting woodland violets 
to the shady corner of her garden. 

“ No, Missie Berry. I knows jes’ whar dat 
bag is. Yas’m, I’se got it hid up safe,” Lily re- 
sponded with her usual nods and chuckles. “ I’se 
got all de feathers I wants,” she added. 

“ Well, you must have nearly enough to stuff 
a pillow,” Berry declared, wishing that Lily 
would tell her what she intended to do with the 
treasured feathers, but Lily only repeated: 

“ Yas’m,” and Berry went on with her work. 

135 


186 


A YANKEE GIRL 


Lily immediately vanished, and did not again ap- 
pear until it was time for her to hel ]) with the mid- 
day meal. 

“ I do wonder where Lily goes, and what she 
is up to,” Berry confided to her mother. “ Every 
day she suddenly disappears and is gone for an 
hour or two. She always comes back looking as 
well pleased with herself as if she had just dis- 
covered a pot of gold.” 

“ Why do you not ask her where she goes? ” 
questioned Mrs. Arnold. “ Very likely she only 
goes off by herself for a nap, for she is up very 
early each morning.” 

“ I have asked her,” Berry responded, “ and 
she just chuckles and nods and says that she hasn’t 
been anywhere. ‘ Jes’ kinder perspectin’ ’roun’ ’ ; 
that’s what she says, Mother.” And Mrs. Ar- 
nold smiled at Berry’s imitation of Lily’s voice 
and manner. But it was only a few days after 
this when Berry, coming into the sitting-room, 
discovered Lily peeping out from Berry’s cham- 
ber. 

“Lily! What are you doing in my room?” 
she called sharply, and the surprised Lily gazed 
at her a little fearfully. 

“ I jes’ stepped in to take vo’ somefin’. 


AT SHILOH 


137 


Somefin’ ter s’ prise yo’,” she finally found cour- 
age to say, for Berry did not usually speak in so 
sharp a tone, and Lily was sure that she herself 
was to blame. “ I wasn’t lookin’ fer yo’, Missie,” 
she went on, as if to excuse herself for some fault, 
but Berry pushed past the negro girl and entered 
her chamber. Her quick glance went straight to 
the dainty dressing-table and with an admiring 
exclamation she ran across the room and stood 
looking eagerly at the prettiest basket she had 
ever seen. It was shaped like a shallow bowl, 
and at the first glance Berry thought it was made 
entirely of feathers, but the feathers were only 
skilfully woven in broad bands through the sweet- 
grass that formed the warp of the basket. The 
woof was of the fragrant cedar roots; these Lily 
had split and polished until they shone like silver 
bands. 

It was indeed a beautiful piece of work, and 
Lily’s “ surprise ” was a great success. The 
negro girl had never before been so praised and 
thanked, and when Mr. and Mrs. Arnold were 
called to come and admire “Lily’s basket,” and 
when they also said that it was the finest basket 
they had ever seen, Lily was as happy as it was 
possible for a girl to be. 


138 


A YANKEE GIRL 


“Who taught you, Lily?” questioned Mrs. 
Arnold, and Lily told of the old negroes at the 
plantation from which she had fled, who were ex- 
pert basket makers. 

“ I hears tell dey learned ter make baskets 
’fore dey was fetch to dis country,” she said, and 
Mr. Arnold remembered having seen feather 
baskets that were brought from Africa. 

“And that’s what you wanted feathers for; 
and that’s what you have been doing when I 
wondered where you were ! ” Berry exclaimed, 
and she was now eager to learn how to make just 
such a basket, and Lily promised to at once begin 
gathering more feathers. 

The basket henceforth was one of Berry’s chief 
treasures, and years afterward, in her New Eng- 
land home, she would often show it and tell of 
Lily’s “ feather-bag.” 

As the days went on Berry was constantly dis- 
covering how many things Lily knew. 

“ Not the same things I know,” she explained 
to her mother, “but wonderful things. Lily can 
make all sorts of things out of tiny twigs ; she can 
make dolls and birds; long-legged cranes, that 
look just like those that Father and I have seen 
along the river.” And Lily could indeed twist 


AT SHILOH 


139 


the pliant willow twigs into many shapes, over 
which Berry would laugh delightedly. 

The spring days went rapidly by, and it was 
now months since the Arnolds had received any 
word from their soldier son, Francis, and visits 
to the post-box on the Corinth road only brought 
disappointment. One morning, toward the end 
of March, after her unfailing daily visit to the 
clump of Judas-trees, Berry decided to visit the 
box and then to go on to the Braggs’ cabin and 
see if there was any sign of the witch’s promise of 
Mollie’s speedy return coming true. 

Much to Berry’s surprise there w r as something 
in the box. But she quickly discovered that it 
was not the hoped-for letter, for her hand had 
closed on a smooth roll of birch-bark. Berry 
drew it out and looked at it wonderingly. There 
were a number of queerly-shaped letters traced 
on its smooth surface. 

“ I wonder who put this in our box? ” she said 
aloud, and then suddenty she waved the bark 
triumphantly and exclaimed, “Mollie! Mollie 
did it. She makes letters just that way. This 
means Mollie’s home!” and Berry started off 
toward the wood road leading to the Braggs’ 
cabin, sure that Mollie would come running 


140 


A YANKEE GIRL 


to welcome her, and thinking happily of all she 
would have to tell and of all Mollie’s prob- 
able adventures of which she would hear. She 
looked eagerly for some trace of smoke rising 
from the cabin chimney, but there was none to be 
seen, and as she came to the rough clearing about 
the cabin Berry stopped suddenly. 

“They’re not there!” she exclaimed; for the 
windows were still boarded over and there was no 
sign that the dilapidated cabin was again inhab- 
ited. Berry, standing near a sheltering clump 
of fir trees, felt almost ready to cry over her dis- 
appointment. She still held the roll of bark in 
her hand, and now again looked at it. The let- 
ters M. and B. were clumsily traced with a bit 
of charcoal on the smooth surface of the bark, 
and were followed by the lines and curves 
such as Mollie had drawn on the slate dur- 
ing the lesson hour in the Arnolds’ sitting-room. 
“ I am sure Mollie wrote these,” Berry whis- 
pered, “ and that she put them in our box as a 
message to me. She must have been here; ” and 
Berry’s eyes again turned anxiously toward the 
cabin, but there was nothing to be seen to indi- 
cate that the Braggs had returned. 

Berry decided that she would go home by a 


AT SHILOH 


141 


woodland trail that led from the back of the 
cabin through a thick growth of forest trees to- 
ward the stream which ran down from the Shiloh 
plateau, and she walked slowly across the clear- 
ing and to the back of the cabin. Her moccasin- 
covered feet made no noise, and as she turned the 
corner of the cabin she heard the familiar voice of 
Mrs. Bragg and saw that the back door was ajar. 
Berry’s first impulse was to run toward the open 
door, but at that moment she heard Mrs. Bragg 
say, “ No, Mollie! How many times must I tell 
ye that yer can’t see Berry Arnold? Didn’ yer 
Pa warn us ter keep ter ourselves till he lets us 
know which army’s gwine ter win? I reckon we 
kin stan’ bein’ a little hungry, an’ I reckon 
Berry’s fergot ye ’fore this! ” 

“Oh! Mrs. Bragg! I haven’t!” Berry ex- 
claimed, darting forward and pushing open the 
cabin door. “ Why don’t you want us to know 
you are home? Oh, Mollie! I’m so glad to see 
you ! ” and Berry ran toward the thin little figure 
that, at the sound of her voice, had jumped up 
from the wooden stool in a far corner of the 
room. 

“Oh! Berry! Berry!” sobbed Mollie, as 
she felt Berry’s firm arms holding her tightly; 


142 


A YANKEE GIRL 


and for a moment the two little friends quite for- 
got Mrs. Bragg and everything except the joy 
of seeing each other again. It was Mollie who 
spoke first. “ My nice dress is spoiled,” she said, 
and Berry’s swift glance noticed that the serge 
skirt had evidently been torn and clumsily 
mended, and the blouse showed that it had re- 
ceived hard wear. The kitchen was cold and 
dark, and Mrs. Bragg explained that Mr. Bragg 
had warned her not to start a fire for fear some 
wandering spy might discover that the cabin was 
inhabited. 

“ Steve says Corinth is chuck full of Con- 
federate soldiers and that the Yankee soldiers 
have landed at Crump’s Landing, not more’n ten 
miles from here; the Yanks tore up a good 
stretch of railroad between Corinth an’ Colum- 
bus, an’ Steve says thar’s more Yanks on the 
march from Columbia; an’ Steve jes’ put off ter 
the mountains. He’ll cum back soon’s these 
pesky armies goes off,” Mrs. Bragg explained, 
as if thinking it only natural that Steve should 
flee from any possible danger. 

“ But we have fires, Mrs. Bragg; and no 
American soldier, Confederate or Yankee, would 
harm you,” Berry declared. “ Why, Mrs. 


AT SHILOH 


143 


Bragg, perhaps your own boy, Len, might get a 
chance to come and see you if the Confederates 
come this way; and if the cabin is all shut up he 
would think you had all gone away, and he would 
go off and you wouldn’t see him,” said Berry 
eagerly. 

For a moment Mrs. Bragg stared at her little 
visitor in amazement; then, moving toward the 
fireplace, she exclaimed, “ My lan’ ! That be the 
very truth. Yo’ gals fetch me some kindlin’ - 
wood an’ I’ll start up a blaze. An’ I’ll wrench 
them boards off’n the windows and open the front 

door ” But a shrill scream from Mollie 

brought her mother’s plans to a sudden end. 
Looking toward the open door Mollie had dis- 
covered a stranger; a young negro boy stood 
there peering anxiously into the cabin; for Lily 
never permitted Berry to be long out of her sight 
and had followed her to the post-box and then on 
to the Braggs’ cabin. 

“ It’s only Lily! ” Berry explained. “ She is 
living with us, and wearing Francis’s old clothes 
because they are easier to go about the woods in.” 

“ Dat’s so!” agreed Lily solemnly, looking 
first at Mollie and then at Mrs. Bragg. 

“ I declar’! ” exclaimed Mrs. Bragg. “ Wal, 


144 A YANKEE GIRL 

then she can take hold and holp us git this cabin 
fit ter live in. Ter think I didn’t project Len 
cornin’ this way!” and Mrs. Bragg was now as 
eager to get a fire started, to open the windows, 
and give the cabin the look of being in use as, a 
few hours earlier, she had been to hide away from 
any possible visitor. 

“ It’s a blessin’ you happened this way, 
Berry!” she declared. “ Yo’ jes’ tuck that 
roll of nice birch-bark under those sticks,” she 
added, noticing the roll of bark, on which 
Mollie’s message was traced, that Berry still 
held. 

With a smiling glance at Mollie, Berry 
promptly obeyed, and in a moment the bark 
blazed up, the kindlings caught fire, and a cheer- 
ful glow and warmth filled the room. With the 
help of Berry and Lily the boards were taken 
from the cabin windows and Mrs. Bragg did her 
best to put the poor rooms in order. When 
Berry declared it was time for her to start for 
home Mrs. Bragg cheerfully consented for Mol- 
lie to go with her, and with Lily close behind 
them, the two little friends made their way along 
the forest trail. 

Berry listened eagerly to Mollie’s story of the 


AT SHILOH 145 

wandering life the Braggs had led since leaving 
their cabin. 

“We visited Paw’s cousin first,” Mollie ex- 
plained, “ but he wanted Paw to jine up with the 
Tennessee sojers an’ go ter Corinth, but Paw don’ 
b’lieve in fightin’, so we went on. We lived in a 
cave fer a spell. An’, Berry, mos’ days I’ve bin 
hungry!” concluded the poor little mountain 
girl, looking up at her friend as if appealing for 
protection. 

“ Well! you shan’t be hungry again, Mollie! ” 
Berry promised. “And we have lots of new 
maple syrup; and I’ll ask Mother to make bat- 
ter-cakes for our dinner to-day ! ” 

Mollie’s pale eyes brightened at this unex- 
pected delight. She was sure her troubles were 
over now that Berry was with her. 

“ I hoped you could read what I wrote on the 
birch-bark,” she said, as they came in sight of the 
Arnolds’ cabin. “ I put it in the box day before 
yesterday. Oh, Berry! I’m so glad we have a 
fire in our kitchen,” she added solemnly, with a 
little shiver in remembrance of the dark, chilly 
cabin where she and her mother had remained in 
hiding for several days without warmth or light. 

Mrs. Arnold gave Mollie a warm welcome, 


146 


A YANKEE GIRL 


and when, late that afternoon, the little girl 
started for home, Lily, carrying a basket filled 
with food, went with her; and Berry promised to 
be at the brook, in the place where she and Mollie 
always planned to meet, by an early hour the 
next forenoon. 

That evening Berry told her mother and fa- 
ther the story of the Braggs’ wanderings, and of 
the hardships Mollie and her mother had suf- 
fered. “ Wouldn’t it be fine if Len could only 
come home and help them? ” said Berry, as she 
finished the story. 

“ He may be here at any time, for his regiment 
is probably in Corinth,” Mr. Arnold responded 
gravely. “ I do not believe the Confederates 
mean to wait for Grant’s army to attack them. 
The spies of General Johnston and General 
Beauregard will keep them informed each day of 
the advance of General Buell’s troops. Beaure- 
gard is used to winning; with the laurels of Fort 
Sumter and Manassas fresh in his mind he may 
decide to advance upon Grant’s forces at once. 
Len Bragg is with Beauregard’s army, and may 
find himself near home any day.” 

“That will be splendid!” Berry declared, 
smiling happily at the thought of the pleasure of 


AT SHILOH 147 

Mollie and Mrs. Bragg if Len should suddenly 
appear. 

But Mr. Arnold shook his head. 

“Anything but that, Berry,” he replied. “ If 
Beauregard’s army surprises the forces of Grant 
and Buell it might mean the capture of the Army 
of the Cumberland. The Confederate troops 
must be nearly equal in numbers to those of the 
Union forces. If Beauregard could take Grant 
by surprise it would indeed be a sad day for the 
Union cause.” 

Berry listened soberly. She well knew that 
her brother Francis was fighting for the cause of 
the Union that slavery might cease to exist and 
the United States remain an undivided nation. 
She now began to realize that war might come 
very near her cabin home; that General Grant’s 
men, marching toward Corinth, might be sur- 
prised and captured by the daring and trium- 
phant Beauregard. And that night Berry re- 
solved to henceforth keep a sharp outlook 
for possible Confederate spies, or for any 
evidence of marching troops along the Corinth 
road. 

“ If I could let General Grant know that Con- 
federates were on the march, then Beauregard 


148 


A YANKEE GIRL 


could not surprise him,” thought Berry, remem- 
bering that she knew all the forest trails and 
woodland roads, and that, if she kept a sharp 
watch, no body of soldiers could reach Pittsburg 
Landing, where her father believed Grant would 
land his soldiers, over either of the Corinth roads 
without her seeing them. “And no one can run 
faster than I can. I could get to the Union 
camp long before the Confederates, and then 
General Grant would be ready,” she thought, not 
realizing any of the dangers in stpre for such a 
messenger just before an impending battle. 

“ I’ll go to the top of the ridge twice every 
day, and I’ll make Lily promise to keep a sharp 
watch,” resolved Berry. 

At first the little girl thought she would tell 
her mother and father of her plan; but she re- 
membered her father’s caution in regard to keep- 
ing out of sight of wayfarers along the trails, and 
said to herself, “ I’ll wait until I have seen real 
soldiers. Perhaps until after I have seen Gen- 
eral Grant himself. I guess my father will be 
proud if I run faster than any Confederate sol- 
dier.” And so Berry confided her new resolve 
to no one but Lily; and the colored girl proved 
the best possible assistant. 


CHAPTER XIV 


ON GUARD 

Mollie Bragg wondered a good deal about 
Lily. Berry treated the colored girl as if she had 
the same right to friendship and kindness as if her 
skin were white. In fact, to Mollie it sometimes 
seemed that Berry was more kind and thoughtful 
toward Lily than toward anyone else, and this 
sadly puzzled Mollie ; and, one day when the two 
little friends were making a playhouse under the 
big oak tree behind the Arnold cabin, Mollie said: 

“ Berry, Lily’s a nigger, ain’ she? ” 

Berry, who was carefully building a “ make- 
believe ” fireplace, stopped and gazed at Mollie 
in astonishment. 

“ Why, Mollie! You know just as well as I 
do that Lily’s a negro girl. My mother says 
Lily couldn't he any blacker ! ” she responded. 

“ Well, you treats her jes’ like you treats white 
folks; you says ‘ please ’ to her when you asks her 
to do things, an’ you says ‘ thank you ’ after she’s 
*149 


150 


A YANKEE GIRL 

done ’em. I’ve heard you. Berry,” and Mollie 
nodded solemnly, as if expecting Berry would 
promptly deny it. 

But Berry also nodded, and only looked more 
and more surprised. 

“ Of course I say 4 please ’ and 4 thank you,’ ” 
she said; 44 and of course I treat her just as I 
would a white girl. I guess I ought to treat her 
better than I do,” Berry continued thoughtfully, 
44 because she has never had anyone to be kind to 
her until she came to live with us. Lily can’t help 
being black. Just suppose your skin was black, 
Mollie, you’d be Mollie just the same inside of 
your skin, wouldn’t you? ” 

44 Mebbe I would,” Mollie replied soberly. 

44 And just think how many things Lily knows 
that we don’t,” Berry continued eagerly. 
44 Don’t you remember that wood pewee’s nest she 
showed us between the forked twigs of the young 
oak tree near our gate? and the cat-bird’s nest in 
the cedar tree? and all the stories she tells us, 
Mollie. About the thrush that pounds acorns on 
the ground until the shells are broken and he can 
get the nut ; and she made that beautiful basket ; 

and — and ” Berry hesitated for a moment 

in her list of Lily’s achievements and then said, 


AT SHILOH 


151 


“ And, anyway, she is ‘ Lily,’ and I like her just 
as well as if she were white.” 

Mollie nodded. She could understand Berry’s 
final reason better than any other: to like Lily 
“ Just because she is Lily ” satisfied her. 

“ I likes you, Berry, jes’ because you are 
Berry,” she said; and the two little friends re- 
sumed their play. Neither of them imagined that 
Lily had heard every word of the conversation 
from her perch on one of the lower branches of 
the big oak tree. It was Lily’s secret hiding- 
place. Perched there among the branches she 
could look far down the ravine in one direction, 
and toward Shiloh church in the other, and with 
little danger of being discovered. She had just 
settled herself there at the time when Berry and 
Mollie arrived beneath the tree, and so could not 
help hearing Mollie’s questions and Berry’s re- 
ply. And as she eagerly listened to Berry’s 
declaration that she, Lily, knew many things that 
the little white girls did not know, that she was 
“ just the same inside her skin ” as if she were a 
white girl, and Berry’s assertion of affection to- 
ward her, Lily nearly tumbled from the tree. 
Tears came to her eyes, and a new sense of happi- 
ness filled her heart. For the first time in her 


152 


A YANKEE GIRL 


life the homeless, uncared for negro girl knew 
that she was loved. “ Jes’ like I was white,” she 
whispered to herself. And her affection for Berry 
deepened, and she again made solemn vows that 
no harm should ever come near “ Missie Berry.” 

It was the next day when Berry confided to 
Lily the news that Confederate troops might, at 
any day, appear on the Corinth road. 

“ That is, unless the Union soldiers march to 
Corinth first,” explained Berry. “And, Lily, 
my brother Francis is a Union soldier ; he’s fight- 
ing to set you free ! ” she continued, her brown 
eyes resting solemnly upon Lily. 

“ Yas, Missie Berry. I reckon yo’ brudder 
would do dat,” Lily responded, “ an’ yo’ don’ 
wan’ de Confedrits ter ketch de odder army? 
Yo’ means ter watch out fer ’em? ” questioned 
Lily. 

“ Yes, Lily, and you must help me. And it 
must be a secret. Not even Mollie Bragg is to 
know,” cautioned Berry. “ We must begin to- 
day,” she added. 

“ Yas, Missie Berry,” Lily promptly agreed. 
Whatever Berry wanted done Lily would do 
without question. But there was something on 
Lily’s mind that troubled her. She knew that 


AT SHILOH 


153 


Berry made daily visits to the red-buds, ready to 
fulfil the promise to the “ witch and Lily now 
resolved to tell her young mistress that the voice 
Berry had heard at midnight as the wind swept 
down the ridge had been the voice of the man of 
whom Berry seemed afraid. And now the col- 
ored girl began to wonder if this man might not 
be one of those Confederates for whom Berry 
meant to watch. 

“ Missie Berry, yo’ knows w’ot I tells yo’ ’bout 
de witch-tree? An’ yo’ ’members de night yo’ 
wen’ down dar, wid de win’ a-howlin’ an’ 
a-screechin’, an’ de dark jes’ lak’ a black wall? 
I wus clus beside yo’, Missie Berry! An’ dat 
wan’ no witch w’ot call yo’ ‘ boy,’ an’ makes yo’ 
promis’ ter kerry a letter. No, Missie! ’Twas 
dat man we saw a-cookin’ a burd ober der fire by 
de ledge! ” 

It was now Berry’s turn to be surprised. But 
she instantly realized that Lily was right; and 
when Lily added, “ I follered arter dat man an’ I 
knows,” Berry looked at her companion admir- 
ingly. “Lily!” she exclaimed, “my father 
thought that man was a spy; and probably the 
letter he means to hide at the witch-tree will be 
for some Confederate general.” 


154 


A YANKEE GIRL 


“ Do yo’ reckons ’twill be fer sum Confedrit 
gen’ril? ” questioned Lily. 

“Yes; because he has been about Shiloh all 
winter, I’m sure he has; keeping watch of the 
Tennessee River, so that he could send word of 
Union troops being landed. And the time I met 
him at the brook I bragged of how fast I could 
run,” Berry continued eagerly, “ and that’s what 
made him want me for a messenger. He must 
have been hiding near the brook, Lily, the day 
you told me about witches.” 

“Dat’s so, Missie Berry! An’ I reckon he 
got de cake an’ de honey,” Lily responded re- 
gretfully. 

“ He’s exactly like the cupboard mouse that 
Mrs. Bragg told me about,” Beny declared, re- 
membering how difficult it had been for her to 
secure the cake, and how much trouble she had 
taken to please some possible witch, only to have 
the woodsman laugh at her folly. 

“ I ain’ nebber heard no story ’bout de cup- 
board mouse,” said Lily; and Berry repeated it, 
greatly to the negro girl’s satisfaction. 

“ Dat am a fine story, Missie, an’ maybe we’s 
gwine ter set de cat af’er dis mouse dat kep’ all 
de cake ter hisse’f,” she chuckled. 


AT SHILOH 


155 


Berry was sure that any message this wander- 
ing spy might leave at the red-bud tree, trusting 
to her promise to run her swiftest to deliver it to 
whomever it might be addressed, would be a mes- 
sage of great importance to both the contending 
armies. It might be to inform General Johnston 
of the progress of Grant’s army, or it might even 
tell when it would be best for Johnston’s troops 
to march toward Pittsburg Landing, thought 
Berry; and her brown cheeks flushed with excite- 
ment at the possibility that she, Berenice Arnold, 
a little Yankee girl from far-off Vermont, of 
whom General Grant had never heard, might do 
this great soldier a real service by delivering this 
message, whatever it might prove to be, into his 
hands. 

“ For the army that knows first what the other 
army plans to do will surely have the best 
chance,” she gravely decided, and resolved that it 
should be through no fault of hers if the message 
did not promptly reach the commander of the 
Union forces. 

Berry could now think of but little else than 
her plans to outwit the spy. She realized that 
henceforth a constant watch must be kept, that 
either Lily or herself must be steadily on the alert, 


156 A YANKEE GIRL 

so that the moment a message was deposited at 
the witch’s tree she could start instantly for the 
race that she firmly believed might result in the 
triumph of the Union forces. 

As all these thoughts went swiftly through her 
mind, Berry stood flushed and silent, while the 
negro girl watched her, wondering what her 
young missie was thinking about, and when at 
last Berry exclaimed: “ Lily! Instead of stand- 
ing here we ought to be on the outlook for that 
man,” Lily nodded her head soberly and 
promptly agreed; and when her young mistress 
said that Lily must start at once for Shiloh 
church, carefully keeping out of sight of any pos- 
sible traveler along the trails, Lily was quite 
ready to obey. 

“ And if you see any signs of him, or get a 
glimpse of him, hurry back as fast as you can and 
tell me,” said Berry as Lily started off. 

For a moment the negro girl hesitated; she 
knew that Mrs. Arnold would expect her to re- 
turn to the cabin with Berry, and she remembered 
that there was work for her to attend to; beside 
this Lily was sure that, as she could not explain 
her absence, Mrs. Arnold would think she had 
purposely neglected her duties, and as Lily was 


AT SHILOH 


157 


always eager to win Mrs. Arnold’s approval she 
now had to choose between being praised and ap- 
proved by Mrs. Arnold for returning promptly, 
and so disappointing Berry, or obeying Berry’s 
wish and having Mrs. Arnold think her a thought- 
less and ungrateful girl. But her indecision 
lasted only a moment. Berry would always hold 
the first place in Lily’s affections ; to please Berry 
seemed the most important thing. Lily would 
never forget that it was Berry who had rescued 
her from the dangers and hardships of her peril- 
ous flight from slavery, and brought her to the 
safety and comfort of her own home; so Lily 
started off toward Shiloh church, going almost 
noiselessly along the rough path. 

As Lily made her way up the slope she thought 
of all the trouble this woodsman spy was making. 

“ ’Pears like ’tain’ only dat he am a-botherin’ 
ob Missie Berry, but he am a-stirrin’ up trubble 
fer dat Gen’l Grant an’ fer Missie Berry’s brud- 
der, an’ dey’s a-fightin’ ter set me free; looks like 
I orter do somet’ing to dat spy to stop his doin’s,” 
she whispered to herself, and her thoughts flew to 
possible aid from “ witches,” but she shook her 
head remembering how they had failed her young 
mistress. 


158 


A YANKEE GIRL 


“ Looks ’s if I’d got to conjure up some way 
by myse’f,” she decided, and before Lily reached 
the woods that bordered on the little clearing 
where stood the rough cabin-like structure known 
as Shiloh church, she had thought of several 
plans by which she could prevent this threatening 
stranger from being of further trouble either to 
Berry or Berry’s brother, or to General Grant. 
But, notwithstanding the making of plans, Lily’s 
eyes had been sharply on the alert for any noise 
that might indicate someone near at hand, and 
she had frequently stopped to listen for sounds of 
movements that would betray any traveler along 
those mountain trails. But beyond the bubbling 
song of the wood-thrush, the musical calls of the 
pewee and scarlet tanager, and now and then the 
rush through the underbrush of some small wood- 
land creature, there was nothing to be heard, and 
a quick glance about the clearing proved that 
there was no lurking stranger in sight. 

Close by where Lily had halted grew a bunch 
of slender ash saplings, and, after she had satisfied 
herself that there was no one within sight or hear- 
ing, Lily drew out the pocket-knife that Mr. Ar- 
nold had given her, and after carefully examining 
the size and condition of the various saplings, she 


159 


AT SHILOH 

began to cut at a branch of one of the larger trees. 
In a short time she was able to break the branch 
off without splitting it. 

“ Dat gwine ter make a good ’nuff bow,” she 
decided, with a little chuckle, “ an’ I reckon I kin 
cut off de top of my moc’sin fer de cord, an’ dar’s 
some fine arrow-wood in dat shed back of de 
church.” And Lily, still careful to keep out of 
sight of any possible traveler, slunk along the 
edge of the woods and came out behind the rough 
shed where Mr. Arnold kept a store of seasoned 
wood for repairs on the church. 

It did not take long for her to find a number of 
slender pieces of hard wood of the desired length 
for arrows, and seating herself on an old stump 
behind the shed Lily began to whittle one of these 
into the proper shape, notching one end and 
pointing the other end. 

“ I reckon I won’ mek but one arrow ter-day,” 
she decided, as she pulled off one of her moccasins 
and with great care carefully cut two slender 
strips from its top. With these she proceeded to 
string the bough cut from the sapling, and al- 
though it lacked the force and rebound of sea- 
soned wood, it nevertheless proved equal to 
speeding the arrow with considerable force. 


160 


A YANKEE GIRL 

“ I jes’ fin’ a chanst ter mek dat spy t’ink he’s 
shot,” she thought, as she turned toward home, 
realizing that hours had passed since she had 
parted from Berry, and beginning to dread Mrs. 
Arnold’s questionings as to her absence. 

“ I reckon I cyan’t say nothin’, jes’ kind of 
act sulky,” she decided mournfully ; but a moment 
later she forgot her own troubles. The soft, even 
pad of approaching footfalls made her scurry 
into the underbrush and conceal herself, and she 
was not a moment too soon, for she had hardly 
crouched behind a thick growing mass of laurel, 
before the hated figure of the spy came into sight. 

Lily held her breath until he had passed her 
hiding-place, then she stepped out noiselessly into 
the path behind him, drew her bow, took careful 
aim, and the clumsy arrow sped through the air 
striking the man sharply on his neck. 

With a yell that echoed through the silent 
woods he gave a leap forward, and fled as if pur- 
sued by an army of foes. As, indeed, he for the 
moment believed himself to be. The impact of 
the sharp pointed arrow had left its mark on his 
neck, a bruise that he believed to be that of a glanc- 
ing bullet, and he afterward wondered why he had 
not heard the report of the rifle, and finally de- 


AT SHILOH 


161 


oided that he had heard it. But he did not turn 
back or seek to discover his assailant, but Lily’s 
clumsy arrow had made him resolve that there 
was no time to be lost in sending a message to 
Corinth, and as he crawled into a hiding-place 
that he believed secure he decided to take no more 
chances by traveling on trails. 

If Orson could have seen the delighted Lily as 
she gazed after his fleeing figure, it is probable 
that she would have had to flee for her life, for 
Lily fairly danced with delight, and as she sped 
toward the cabin she would frequently come to a 
standstill and laugh and wave her bow in tri- 
umphant satisfaction. While she had not really 
injured the dreaded stranger Lily was sure that 
she had frightened him, and was well satisfied 
with that. 

Meanwhile Berry had met Mollie at the brook, 
as they had agreed on, and the two friends turned 
toward the Arnolds’ cabin. Although Berry’s 
thoughts were full of the spy and the mysterious 
message, she realized that she must not speak of 
them to Mollie; and as she looked at Mollie’s 
happy face, and noticed how much better the lit- 
tle girl looked since the day when Berry had dis- 
covered the returned wanderers in their own 


162 


A YANKEE GIRL 


cabin, Berry for the time forgot her plans to help 
the Union Army and thought only of what she 
could do for this friend who depended so much on 
her. 

“ I am going to teach you after this, Mollie,” 
she said, reaching out to clasp Mollie’s hand 
firmly in her own as they walked on side by side. 
“ You see, Father is too busy just now; and I am 
sure I can help you learn to write.” 

“ Oh, yes! Why, you can teach me all you 
know! ” Mollie agreed eagerly, thinking how for- 
tunate she was to have such a friend. 

“ Perhaps so,” responded Berry a little doubt- 
fully. “Anyway I am sure I can teach you to 
write, and then if you ever go away again you can 
write me.” 

“ I don’t want to ever go away again,” Mollie 
declared soberly, remembering the weeks of un- 
certain wanderings about the mountains during 
the past winter ; weeks when she had often known 
cold and hunger and fear, and that made her 
rough cabin home seem a place of comfort and 
safety, and which she hoped never again to leave. 

Clasping Berry’s hand, and tightly holding her 
birthday doll, “ Mis’ Ellen Arnold,” to which 
Mollie had clung during all her wanderings, Mol- 


163 


AT SHILOH 

lie listened happily to Berry’s plan for teaching 
her to write, and to learn wonderful things, such 
as who discovered America, the places first set- 
tled, and of the great rebellion that had made 
America an independent nation. 

Mrs. Arnold was standing at the cabin door as 
the two little girls came up the path, and smiled 
as she noticed how eagerly they were talking and 
how much better Mollie seemed. But where was 
Lily, she wondered, for there was no sign of 
Lily ; and after greeting Mollie and telling Berry 
that she and Mollie could help themselves to a 
freshly baked ginger cake that was cooling on 
the kitchen table, she began to ask about the miss- 
ing Lily. 

“ Where is Lily?” she questioned; and much 
to her surprise was obliged to repeat her question 
before Berry replied: 

“ Oh! Lily’s coming.” 

So supposing the colored girl might appear at 
any moment, Mrs. Arnold did not question Berry 
further. Berry brought her slate to the porch 
steps, and began to show Mollie how to trace let- 
ters, and for a time no more was said in regard to 
Lily’s absence. But as the hour of noon drew 
near and there was no sign of her, and when Mrs. 


164 


A YANKEE GIRL 

Arnold had several times come to the cabin door 
and looked down the path in search of the missing 
girl. Berry began to feel uneasy. Suppose after 
all the stranger was in search of runaway slaves 
and had recognized Lily, she thought fearfully, 
and had captured the negro girl and taken her 
away ! And Berry found it difficult to sit quietly 
beside Mollie on the porch step instead of rushing 
off to search for Lily. 

Dinner-time came and as they gathered at the 
table Lily was still missing, and now Mrs. Arnold 
also began to feel anxious. She wondered if it 
might not be possible that Lily had tired of living 
with them; or, perhaps becoming frightened by 
the rumors of advancing armies, had again 
started on her wanderings, and she questioned 
Berry very closely as to probable reasons for 
Lily’s absence, and finally said: 

“After this Lily must remain in the cabin, or 
near at hand, unless I give her permission to go 
with you, Berry. Now that Mollie is once more 
at home you can have her for a companion, and 
will not need Lily with you so constantly.” 

Berry listened, hardly believing it possible that 
all her well-laid plans could be so overturned ; for 
she knew that unless Lily could go and come 


AT SHILOH 


165 


without interference that she might easily fail to 
secure the spy’s message in time for it to be of 
any use to General Grant; and as her mother 
turned back to the kitchen Berry ran after her. 

“ Oh, Mother! I’ll do Lily’s work. Please, 
please , do not say she must stay in!” Berry 
pleaded so earnestly that Mrs. Arnold looked at 
her wonderingly. But she shook her head. 

“ No, Berry, you have your own work to do. 
And nothing could do Lily more harm than to 
let her run wild. After this I mean to have her 
learn more about household work, so that when 
she leaves us she can find a good home.” 

Berry stared at her mother in amazement. 
“ But Lily isn’t going to leave us, ever! I prom- 
ised she should always stay with me,” she re- 
sponded, nearly ready to cry at these new possi- 
bilities; if Lily could not run about, if she was 
to be kept indoors, Berry knew that she must 
give up her effort to defeat the spy. 

If Mrs. Arnold wondered at her little daugh- 
ter’s excitement over her decision she did not 
speak of it. “ We will always befriend Lily, my 
dear, you know that,” she said. But Berry would 
not be satisfied with this promise. 

“ Mother! Say that Lily shall always, always, 


166 


A YANKEE GIRL 

always stay with us,” she urged. “ I have told 
her over and over that she should; and, Mother, 
it will be dreadful if Lily cannot go and come as 
she wants to. Why, she will think that you are 
displeased with her.” 

“I am displeased with her,” responded Mrs. 
Arnold. “ She has neglected her work and is 
wandering about for her own pleasure. Look! 
There she comes!” And Berry turned to see 
Lily coming up the path, swinging the clumsy 
ash bow in one hand and smiling radiantly as if 
very well pleased with herself. Berry started to 
run to meet her, feeling sure that Lily had impor- 
tant news; but Mrs. Arnold quickly prevented 
this. “ Stop, Berry! Go back to Mollie. I 
want to speak to Lily. You can see that I was 
quite right; she has been making a bow and ar- 
rows and playing about in the woods.” 

“ Please, Mother, don’t ” Berry began; 

but Mrs. Arnold only shook her head, and Berry 
had only time to wave a welcoming hand toward 
her faithful messenger before Lily reached the 
porch. 

Lily at once realized that her fears in regard to 
Mrs. Arnold’s disapproval were justified. She 
made no effort to explain her absence, but stood 


AT SHILOH 


167 


with bowed head and downcast eyes while Mrs. 
Arnold told her that all the work expected of her 
had been delayed, and added that henceforth she 
was not to go out of sight of the cabin without 
permission. Lily listened silently. When Mrs. 
Arnold had finished the colored girl dropped the 
weapon she had so cleverly made and turned dili- 
gently toward the work of the cabin. It was 
nightfall before she found an opportunity to tell 
Berry of her successful shot at the spy, and of 
his flight along the trail. But Berry was too 
anxious about the fact that Lily was no longer to 
be free to go and come to praise her for her clever 
shot ; and poor Lily, who was quite willing to bear 
Mrs. Arnold’s blame, hard as that might be, if 
Berry was only pleased, went about her usual 
duties with so solemn an air that Mrs. Arnold 
became Sony for the girl, and feared that she had 
been too severe with her. 

It was toward sunset when Mollie started for 
home. It had been rather an unhappy day for 
the little girl, for, after Mrs. Arnold’s decision in 
regard to Lily, Berry’s interest in Mollie’s lesson 
vanished; she became impatient with all Mollie’s 
attempts to write, and all Mollie’s efforts to 
please her were of no avail; nor did Berry notice 


168 A YANKEE GIRL 

the tears in Mollie’s eyes as the little girl bade her 
good-bye. 

“ I’ll write better to-morrow, Berry, I know I 
will,” Mollie faltered, as clasping her shabby, be- 
loved doll, she started to join Mrs. Arnold, who 
had offered to walk as far as the brook with her. 

“ I don’t care how you write,” Berry had care- 
lessly responded, her eyes anxiously following 
Lily, and eager for Mollie to go that she might 
hear whatever Lily could tell her. 

Mollie gave a little sob as she turned and fol- 
lowed Mrs. Arnold down the path. She decided 
that she must be so stupid that Berry no longer 
cared to teach her. It was the first time Berry 
had ever spoken unkindly to the little mountain 
girl. Mrs. Arnold was quick to notice Mollie’s 
trouble and comforted the little girl by saying 
that Berry was anxious about Lily; and when she 
added, “ I have a skirt for your mother in this 
package, Mollie,” the little girl’s eyes brightened 
happily; for Mollie’s chief sorrow was that her 
mother had nothing for herself. Whatever Mol- 
lie had she was eager to share with her mother. 
Mrs. Arnold knew this, and it made her very 
tender toward the little girl. 


CHAPTER XV; 

SOLDIERS ON SHILOH RIDGE 

Berry had not realized that her words would 
hurt Mollie’s sensitive nature; indeed she hardly 
remembered what she had said, for her thoughts 
were full of marching armies ; of sleeping soldiers 
suddenly attacked by relentless foes ; and of her- 
self, as a swift-footed messenger, reaching the 
Union camp in time to warn and save them. She 
went about the cabin after her mother’s depar- 
ture repeating a verse from a poem she had 
learned that winter, a poem by Sir Walter Scott: 

<e 4 Down from the hill the maiden pass’d, 

At the wild show of war aghast, — 

0 gay, yet fearful to behold, 

Flashing with steel and rough with gold, 

And bristled o’er with swords and spears, 

With plumes and pennons waving fair, 

Was that bright battle-front 5 ” 

“My Ian’, Missie Berry!” exclaimed the ad- 
miring Lily, “ does yo’ reckon we’s gwine ter see 
all dat? ” 

And at Lily’s question Berry quickly remem- 
169 


170 


A YANKEE GIRL 


bered that she should be off to Shiloh and keep 
watch. The little girl realized from her father’s 
anxious face, and from what he said of the prob- 
able advance of Confederate troops, that any 
hour might see them on the march. 

“ I don’t know, Lily,” she responded gravely, 
“ but I’m sure we ought to keep watch all the 
time; and I’m going up the ridge now.” 

“ I bin a projectin’, Missie Berry, ’bout yo’ Ma 
tellin’ me to stay clus in dis cabin in cle mawnin’s. 
Co’rse I mus’ min’ her,” said Lily, “ so I jes’ 
wonner if I hadn’ better keep a watch out at 
night. Dar ain’ no reason w’y dose sojers 
wouldn’ come a-creepin’ fru de woods at night ! ” 
And Lily rolled her eyes and nodded her head 
solemnly. 

“ Oh, Lily! Of course! I forgot all about 
nights!” Berry responded eagerly. “But how 
can you keep awake? ” 

“ I reckon I kin,” declared Lily. 

“ Well, we’ll begin to keep a steady watch 
from to-day. I’ll be on guard days and you can 
watch nights,” said Berry. “ If you hear or see 
anything, Lily, you must let me know as quickly 
as you can! ” 

“ Yas, Missie Berry, I kin swarm up dat oak 


AT SHILOH 


171 


tree side yo’ winder an 5 tells yo’, if I hears sojers 
or sees armies/’ promised Lily, and returned to 
her work, while Berry put on her red cap and 
started off for another look along the roads lead- 
ing to Corinth. 

It was the twenty-eighth day of March, 1862, 
and on that very day General Halleck, of the 
Union army, had informed General Buell that 
Grant would attack the enemy “ as soon as the 
roads are passable.” It was to be a deliberate 
forward movement on Corinth from Pittsburg 
Landing, to be undertaken some days later; for 
the Union forces had no idea of the Confeder- 
ates’ plan to surprise them by an attack on Pitts- 
burg Landing. 

The river banks at the Landing rise eighty feet 
above the river, but are cloven by a series of ra- 
vines, through one of which runs the main road 
to Corinth. Beyond the crest of the acclivity 
stretches a rough tableland. On this plateau five 
divisions of General Grant’s Army of West Ten- 
nessee were camped, feeling themselves abso- 
lutely secure from any hostile visit, and unsus- 
picious of any shock of battle, and little imagin- 
ing that a small Yankee girl was to be the means 
of saving them from capture. 


172 


A YANKEE GIRL 

As Berry ran along through the forest she 
could hear the cheerful songs of cardinals and 
robins. Squirrels scolded at her as they clung 
to the trunks of the tall oaks; and the air was full 
of the springtime fragrance. The silver chain 
and whistle hung about her neck, and Berry gave 
them a little loving touch, thinking of the absent 
brother who had given them to her. As she came 
out on the high plateau and stood looking toward 
the Tennessee River there was no sound except 
the songs of birds and the chattering of squirrels 
to break the stillness. Berry’s keen glance 
scanned the distant road, but there was no mov- 
ing form to be seen. She turned and looked to- 
ward Shiloh woods; the woods where Confederate 
troops would lay on their arms on the night be- 
fore the Battle of Shiloh were now quiet in the 
spring sunshine. 

Berry perched herself on the stump of an old 
tree and began to wish that she had asked Mollie 
to be her companion. 

“ Mollie would not imagine why I wanted to 
climb up here ; and we could play our old games,” 
thought Berry, recalling the previous autumn 
when she and Mollie had made families of dolls 
out of sticks and twigs with moss for hair and 


AT SHILOH 


173 


with gowns of oak-leaves and vines. They had 
made playhouses among the ledges or at the 
roots of some big tree, where, happy and undis- 
turbed, they would play for hours. Berry won- 
dered if they would ever again play together on 
that pleasant hillside. 

She had only been resting a few moments when 
she heard the crashing of underbrush on the slope 
beneath her. Berry quickly concealed herself 
behind a tree ; and in a moment the sound of loud 
voices, the jingle of arms and the noise of ap- 
proaching feet made her whisper, “Soldiers!” 
And it was not long before half a dozen men, in 
the blue uniform of the Northern army, came out 
into the open space on top of the ridge. They 
were evidently tired from their climb up the ra- 
vine, and, to Berry’s surprise, they apparently 
had no notion of concealing themselves — they 
were talking and laughing together as if they had 
no thought of war. 

Berry was near enough to the newcomers to 
see them distinctly, and to hear every word they 
said. She heard them speak of the army in camp 
at Pittsburg Landing, and gave a little gasp of 
surprise, wondering if her father knew that 
Grant’s troops were so near. 


174 


A YANKEE GIRL 

“ There ought to be outposts stationed all 
along here/’ she heard one of the younger sol- 
diers declare; and another laughingly responded, 
“ Oh, Colonel Peabody, the Confederates won’t 
march over these roads and gullies. It’s the 
Union soldiers who will go after them at Cor- 
inth.” 

“ That may be, but it would do no harm to 
guard the roads,” responded the young officer 
gravely. 

Beny waited to hear no more. It seemed to 
the little girl that there must be marching sol- 
diers in every direction, and she crept noiselessly 
away into the shelter of the forest and ran to- 
ward home eager to tell her father of what she 
had seen and heard. 

Half-way down the ravine she met her father, 
who was on his way home from a visit to the 
Braggs’ cabin. 

“ Father! Father! There are soldiers at Shi- 
loh church ! I saw them ! And Grant’s army is at 
Pittsburg Landing! ” Berry exclaimed, clasping 
her father’s hand as if she expected an army in- 
stantly to seize him. 

“ Yes, my dear. And you must now stay 
closely at home. The main roads to Corinth will 


175 


AT SHILOH 

be guarded by soldiers; but our cabin is too far 
from the highways for us to see them,” Mr. Ar- 
nold quietly replied. 

“ Do you suppose we will see General Grant? ” 
asked Berry; and her father smiled down at the 
little girl’s eager face. 

“ He will probably march on to Corinth in a 
few days,” he responded, and then added, “ The 
flare of his camp-fires can be seen from Shiloh; 
their outposts are not more than a mile from the 
main line. If the Confederates surprise them it 
will be a terrible struggle.” 

“ But they mustn’t surprise them!” the little 
girl exclaimed earnestly; and again resolved that 
she would watch more closely than ever for any 
sign of the approaching enemy. 

When they reached the cabin Mrs. Arnold was 
on the outlook for them. She and Mr. Arnold 
spoke of Mollie and her mother, and Mrs. Ar- 
nold declared that Mrs. Bragg was sure that Len 
might appear any day. 

4 4 Their cabin is so far in from the highway 
that I think they will be safe,” Mr. Arnold said 
thoughtfully. And both Berry and her mother 
understood that he was thinking that it might be 
possible, before many days passed, that Northern 


176 


A YANKEE GIRL 


and Southern troops would meet in deadly con- 
flict along those peaceful country roads. 

That night Berry followed Lily when the col- 
ored girl started toward the barn. “ Lily, I’m 
going to take turns watching at night ! ” she said. 
“ General Grant’s army is at Pittsburg Landing, 
and if the Confederates surprise them my father 
says they might capture the Union army.” 

Lily gazed at her young mistress a little fear- 
fully. “My lan’, Missie Berry! Yo’ don’ 
reckon we cud stop a army, does yo’? ” she said, 
waving the milk pail as if it were a banner; “ how 
does yo’ reckon we gwine ter do sich a thing? ” 

“We can do it by letting General Grant know 
that the Confederates mean to attack his camp! ” 
declared Berry. 

“ We shu’ kin do dat, Missie Berry; pervided 
we sees ’um fust ! I reckons we’ll hev ter watch 
out sharp ! ” Lily responded soberly. 


CHAPTER XVI 


BERRY IS TAKEN PRISONER 

Berry's morning lessons with her father were 
now for a time discontinued. The little house- 
hold in the mountain cabin realized that the en- 
campment of Union soldiers at Pittsburg Land- 
ing meant that a battle was near at hand; and 
Berry's thoughts, as well as those of her mother 
and father, were absorbed in what General 
Grant’s next movement might be. 

Mollie Bragg came nearly every morning to 
practise her lessons in writing, and apparently 
had quite forgotten Berry’s thoughtless unkind- 
ness. Berry presented the slate and pencil to 
the little girl so that she might use it at home; 
and this gift made Mollie sure that Berry had 
not meant to be unkind. Mrs. Arnold had again 
fitted Mollie out with a neat dress of stout ging- 
ham. Mrs. Bragg had made the poor cabin neat 
and livable, and had planted the rough garden 
plot with early vegetables. Every day she and 
Mollie kept a sharp outlook for Len. But Gen- 
177 


178 


A YANKEE GIRL 


eral Beauregard was doing his best to get his 
forces at Corinth ready for a march on the enemy 
and no absences were permitted. But Len was 
to see his mother and sister, nevertheless, much 
earlier than he then imagined. 

Lily’s first night of “ guard duty,” as Berry 
called it, passed without her seeing or hearing 
anything to awaken her fears. The colored girl, 
however, had slept for several hours as she 
crouched against a mossy log near Shiloh church. 
But Lily was sure that she would have awakened 
at the slightest sound. On her way home, in the 
gray light of the early morning, she had stopped 
at the red-buds and found a sealed letter under 
the rock at the roots of the tree. 

“ I reckons I’ll let Missie Berry see dis fus’,” 
she resolved, and followed Berry’s plan of reach- 
ing her chamber by the help of the old oak; so 
that Berry was suddenly awakened, just at day- 
break, by a gentle touch on her curly hair and a 
whispered word: 

“ Missie Berry, Missie Berry, de letter’s cum,” 
said Lily. 

For a moment Berry believed herself dream- 
ing, and rubbed her eyes sleepily. Then in- 
stantly she was wide awake, and seized the letter. 


AT SHILOH 


179 


It was enclosed in a brown paper, and tied with 
a coarse string. In the dim morning light Berry 
read: “ For General Johnston, at Corinth/’ and 
beneath it in large letters, “ RUN ! ” 

The two girls stared at each other with sober 
faces. 

“ W’ot yo’ gwine ter do, Missie Berry? Yo’ 
gwine ter gib dis letter to yo’ pa? ” questioned 
Lily. 

Berry shook her head. “ I don’t know yet. 
If I give it to Father I would have to tell him 
about my going to the witch-tree at midnight,” 
she whispered. “ I’ll have to think what I will 
do.” And Lily nodded and made her way noise- 
lessly to the kitchen. 

Berry turned the letter over in her hand. To 
open a letter addressed to another person did not 
occur to her. But this was a spy’s letter ; it must 
contain news of the Union army, secretly ob- 
tained, and Berry knew that it would be of value 
to the enemy and that it would be a service if she 
could give it to a Union officer. 

“ I’ll carry it to the Pittsburg camp,” she re- 
solved. 

The moment breakfast was over Berry saun- 
tered out to the porch and instantly disappeared. 


180 


A YANKEE GIRL 


She scrambled down the rough slope of the ra- 
vine, and followed a path just above the Corinth 
road. It was a day of early April, and a damp 
mist lay over the river and drifted in little clouds 
along the hills. Berry had to make her way with 
some caution, as recent rains had made the path 
boggy and uncertain; but within an hour she was 
in sight of the rows of white tents that dotted the 
rough plateau facing the Tennessee River. Not 
a single spadeful of earth had been thrown up 
for entrenchments; no horseman patrolled the 
encampment. As Berry stood for a moment 
looking at what seemed to her so wonderful a 
sight, she heard the sound of laughter, and a mo- 
ment later a group of soldiers came from a tent 
very near to where she was standing. 

“ What’s this? ” exclaimed one of the men, as 
he discovered a slight boyish figure in a well- 
worn flannel blouse and knickerbockers, and 
wearing a red tam-o’-shanter cap, standing di- 
rectly in front of him. 

“ Off with that cap, young man! Don’t you 
know enough to salute the officers of your coun- 
try’s army? ” 

Berry instantly clutched at her cap, and bowed 
to each officer in turn. 


AT SHILOH 


181 


The three men laughed again, and one of them, 
whom Berry now recognized as the officer she 
had seen a few days earlier at Shiloh, and who 
had been addressed as Colonel Peabody, ex- 
claimed: “ Pretty good for a Southern lad. 
What’s your errand at this camp, my boy? ” 

‘‘If you please, Colonel Peabody, I want to 
see General Grant ! ” Berry replied soberly. 

“ Sorry, young man, but the General is at his 
headquarters in Savannah, nine miles down the 
river! Did you call to ask him to dinner? ” re- 
sponded the officer, smiling kindly down at the 
brown eyes that rested on his with so serious an 
expression. 

“ No, sir; although I am sure we would be 
pleased to ask him to dinner,” began Berry; but 
before she could continue, the officers, evidently 
greatly amused by her response, broke into 
laughter; and the man who had first spoken said, 
“Southern hospitality, eh? Well! This boy 
looks a bit different from most of those I’ve seen! 
What do you want? ” he concluded a little sus- 
piciously, looking at Berry so sharply that, for 
the first time, she began to feel a little afraid. 

“ This letter,” and she pulled the brown-cov- 
ered message from the pocket of her blouse, “ I 


182 


A YANKEE GIRL 


found it and I thought General Grant would like 
to see it,” and Berry held the letter out toward 
Colonel Peabody. 

“ ‘ To General Johnston at Corinth. RUN/ ” 
he read the inscription aloud; and the three of- 
ficers gazed at each other in amazement; and a 
second later Berry felt a firm hand grasp her 
shoulder. 

“ So you are a messenger for the Confederate 
spy, eh? Well, you have come to the wrong 
camp. What’s your idea in bringing this letter 
here? Want to count our troops? Pretty clever 
scheme, wasn’t it? ” and the man turned to his 
companions, who nodded their agreement. They 
believed Berry had been sent to the camp to se- 
cure information for the Confederates, and that 
the letter had only been an excuse. Colonel 
Peabody thrust it into his pocket and, keeping a 
fast hold of Berry’s shoulder, led her toward a 
near-by tent. “ Guess we’ll keep you with us un- 
til we march into Corinth,” he said, giving her a 
little push into the tent, where two soldiers in- 
stantly sprang up from a small table. 

“ Keep your eyes on this boy until I come for 
him,” commanded the officer, and Berry found 
herself alone facing the two soldiers, one of whom 


AT SHILOH 183 

motioned to a wooden stool and said roughly, 
“ Sit down! ” 

Berry quickly obeyed. This was a very dif- 
ferent reception than the one she had imagined. 
She began to wish that she had followed Lily’s 
suggestion and given the letter to her father. 
Once or twice she started to speak, but one of the 
men promptly commanded her to “ Shut up!” 
with so rough a voice that Berry did not dare to 
continue. 

She realized that she was a prisoner in the 
camp of the Union army, and that no one would 
know where to look for her. 

“ If I had only told Lily what I meant to do,” 
she thought mournfully as the hours passed and 
her hope of a speedy release vanished. But she 
was resolved that in some way she must escape, 
and was on the alert for a possible chance to slip 
out of the tent. Once free from the camp she 
was sure she could outrun any pursuer. 

The hour of noon came, and one of the soldiers 
sauntered out after his dinner. The other fol- 
lowed him to the entrance urging him to hurry. 
Berry was sure she would have no better oppor- 
tunity to make an attempt to escape. In a mo- 
ment she had slipped from the stool, and creep- 


184 


A YANKEE GIRL 


ing behind the unsuspecting soldier, she gave him 
so sudden and unexpected a push that he stum- 
bled, and she sped past him and was off, running 
her best toward the steep slope above which stood 
the camp. 

With a yell the soldier was after her; and 
Berry dared not look backward. She was sure 
the whole army was in pursuit as she fled down 
the embankment. 


CHAPTER XVII 

THE EVENING BEFORE SHILOH 

It was well on in the afternoon when Berry 
reached the cabin. As Mollie had not appeared 
that morning Mrs. Arnold supposed Berry was 
with her and had not been anxious. But Berry 
now told the story of her adventure, to which her 
mother and father listened in amazement. 

“ The soldiers did not give me a chance to tell 
them that I was a little Yankee girl,” Berry con- 
cluded resentfully. 

“No pickets on guard; and General Grant at 
Savannah!” exclaimed Mr. Arnold, quite for- 
getting Berry’s experience with “ witches ” and 
spies, as Berry described the unguarded camp at 
Pittsburg Landing. “ If Johnston and Beaure- 
gard discover these things they will attack at 
once! ” he said thoughtfully.' 

“ Perhaps that letter was to tell them,” said 
Berry, adding: “ I’m so hungry! ” 

Lily instantly sped to the pantry; and in a few 
moments Berry was happily occupied with a 
plate of corn bread and a pitcher of milk. Later 
185 


186 


A YANKEE GIRL 

on her mother talked seriously with the little girl, 
telling Berry of the possible accidents that might 
have befallen her, and no one at the cabin know- 
ing where to look for her. 

“And if you had given the letter to your fa- 
ther, my dear, he would have read it and discov- 
ered if it was of any importance,” she concluded. 
Mrs. Arnold did not ask any promise from 
Berry, for she felt sure there would be no more 
midnight visits to the “ witch-tree and she did 
not for a moment imagine that Berry had re- 
solved to do “ guard duty ” for the camp at 
Pittsburg Landing. 

A week passed, with heavy rains making the 
roads to Corinth nearly impassable, and convinc- 
ing Berry that there was no need for anyone to 
look out for marching foes. But although Sat- 
urday morning, the fifth of April, dawned in a 
furious rain, Berry resolved it was again time for 
her to visit the distant ridge. But her father 
was ill that morning; Lily was kept busy at 
household tasks, and Mrs. Arnold required 
Berry’s assistance, so it was not until night that 
Berry could leave the cabin. 

Dark clouds were sweeping over the tops of 
the forest trees as the little girl lowered herself 


AT SHILOH 


187 


from the window of her room and made her way 
through the gathering darkness to the trail lead- 
ing to Shiloh. Long before her journey was 
completed she heard strange sounds and muffled 
noises, but the rain had ceased and she went 
slowly forward, stopping now and then to listen, 
but with no idea that, in spite of rain and almost 
impassable roads, the Confederates had marched 
from Corinth, and that in Shiloh woods yonder, 
grimly awaiting the dawn, 40,000 Confederate 
troops lay waiting the command to attack Pitts- 
burg Landing; an army that General Grant be- 
lieved to be in Corinth, twenty miles away. This 
stealthily moving host now lay on its arms, weary 
from its day’s march. No fires had been lighted; 
and sheltered in the shadowy forest a council of 
Confederate generals gathered in the small clear- 
ing toward which Berry was noiselessly ap- 
proaching. 

The flicker of a light attracted the little girl’s 
attention, and she made her way toward it, and 
in a moment stopped suddenly, too amazed and 
frightened to comprehend that she was gazing 
upon one of the important scenes in the history 
of the Civil War. 

Resting on a stump was a lantern; a drum 


188 A YANKEE GIRL 

served as a writing-desk ; and seated on a blanket 
close by was General Hardee, broad-shouldered 
and muscular; General Bragg, who sat beside 
him, was wan and haggard; his iron gray beard 
and thin form in great contrast to that of Har- 
dee’s. Berry’s eyes rested longest on a dignified 
and martial figure that paced slowly from the 
stump to the edge of the group. Tall, erect and 
powerful, with a gray military cloak thrown over 
his shoulders, General Albert Sidney Johnston, 
Commander of the Confederate forces at Shiloh, 
might well hold the attention of any observer; 
and Berry never forgot her only glimpse of this 
resolute and fearless soldier who, before another 
sunset, was fated to fall on the field of battle. 

Walking quickly to and fro was a slender fig- 
ure in gray uniform ; the soldierly and handsome 
Beauregard; and Generals Breckinridge and 
Polk stood silent near by. 

Berry, crouching behind a stump, could hear 
their entire conversation. She heard Beaure- 
gard declare that the Union camp was entirely 
unprepared to face an attack; that General 
Grant was nine miles down the river, and on the 
other shore at that; and, as he bade his compan- 
ions good-night, he confidently announced, 


AT SHILOH 189 

“ Gentlemen, to-morrow night we sleep in the 
enemy’s camp.” 

Berry waited to hear no more. Here was the 
very opportunity for which she had been waiting: 
to be of use to the cause for which Francis was 
fighting. She quite forgot her reception at the 
Union camp that morning of a week earlier as 
she realized how close at hand was the attack 
upon them. She knew that no time must be lost. 
The night was dark, and it would be no easy mat- 
ter for her to find her way along trails and over 
the streams, swollen by recent rains, that she 
must cross to reach Pittsburg Landing. One 
clumsy step might plunge her down the ravine, 
or into the muddy waters of the stream ; but she 
did not consider these things as she fearfully 
made her way from the steadily moving sentinels 
about the sleeping army. Alert as they were, 
they did not see or hear the little figure that slid 
from tree to tree in the forest darkness; and 
Berry was soon on a shadowy trail that would 
take her to the Corinth road leading to Pittsburg 
Landing. 

Colonel Peabody, who commanded the first 
brigade of General Prentiss’s division, had read 
the letter that Berry had given him; but, as he 


190 


A YANKEE GIRL 

believed it some sort of a hoax, gave it little at- 
tention. Nevertheless he was vaguely uneasy 
that night of April fifth over the safety of the 
camp, and, long after his companions were asleep 
he paced about the plateau; and when a tired, 
panting little figure came running toward him 
out of the shadows he stopped in amazement. 
Before he could speak Berry was close beside 
him. 

“ I’m not a Southern boy; I’m a little Yankee 
girl from Vermont,” she announced before the 
surprised officer could ask a question. “And 
there are thousands of Confederate soldiers in 
Shiloh woods who are going to march here early ; 
perhaps they are coming now,” Berry whispered, 
too tired to speak aloud. But she managed to 
answer the officer’s sharp questions without fal- 
tering; and Colonel Peabody was quickly con- 
vinced that this tired little girl had brought news 
that might save the Pittsburg Landing camp 
from capture. He now realized that the little 
figure beside him could hardly stand upright, and 
lifting Berry in his arms he carried her to his tent 
and set her gently down on his bed. “ Rest here, 
brave little Yankee,” he said kindly. “ You have 
indeed proved your courage.” 


AT SHILOH 


191 


Berry heard his words as if they were part of a 
dream ; almost instantly her eyes closed. Before 
she awoke the battle of Shiloh had begun. 

The morning of Sunday, April sixth, was al- 
ready dawning as Colonel Peabody hastened to 
dispatch five companies of soldiers down the 
Corinth road. The divisions of McClernand, 
Prentiss and Sherman were at once ready for ac- 
tion, while Generals Hurlburt and Wallace made 
ready to defend the Landing. As the Union sol- 
diers marched down the Corinth road they were 
met by a rattling fire of musketry. It was the 
advancing Confederates. Instantly the woods 
were alive with the yells of the exultant Confed- 
erates. The Union generals, overwhelmed by 
surprise, could only do their best to defend them- 
selves. General Sherman’s troops, with two bat- 
teries at Shiloh church, for a time held off the foe. 
Sherman himself held his surprised troops to 
their task, and was the chief figure on the Union 
side that day at Shiloh. General W. H. Wallace 
moved his troops forward to Sherman’s assist- 
ance, but the Union troops were forced steadily 
back toward the Landing, and by afternoon the 
fate of the Union army was critical. 

But at this crisis Nelson’s division, sent for- 


192 


A YANKEE GIRL 


ward from General Grant’s headquarters, ar- 
rived, and rushed upon the scene. Darkness ap- 
proached, and Beauregard called off his troops, 
confident that on the morrow they could com- 
plete their triumph. 

Next morning, however, the astounded Con- 
federates beheld a new enemy in the field: Gen- 
eral Buell’s troops and those of General Lew 
Wallace had arrived; and before Monday night 
the Confederate retreat had begun. It was con- 
ducted with masterly order and precision. The 
Confederates, winning the first day, were con- 
quered only by the timely arrival of Buell’s 
25,000 fresh troops. But it is easy to picture the 
disappointment of the brave Beauregard as he 
led his men back to Corinth. 

Berry had awakened to the roar of cannon, the 
reports of musketry, and the calls of officers urg- 
ing their men forward. She peered from the 
tent door and wondered how she could ever again 
reach home. For the first time she began to 
think of how troubled and anxious her mother 
and father must be as they heard the reverbera- 
tions of guns through the ravines, and realized 
that a battle was under way, and discovered that 
their little daughter was missing. 


AT SHILOH 


193 


“ But I couldn’t help it,” Berry whispered to 
herself, with a little sob. “ I had to come.” Her 
feet were nearly blistered, and she found it diffi- 
cult to walk, and crept back to the bed. It was 
nearly dusk when a soldier stumbled into the 
tent, opened a box and muttered: “ Here, the 
Colonel said to give you a bite to eat,” and 
handed Berry some hard crackers and strips of 
dried beef. 

“ There’s water in that jar,” he said, pointing 
to a stone jar on a near-by table; and Berry 
drank thirstily. 

“ I want to go home! ” she announced, turning 
toward where the soldier had stood; but he had 
vanished. Berry again found herself alone. The 
reports of artillery gradually ceased; darkness 
settled over the camp ; and the little girl, who had 
brought the news of the advancing enemy, was 
apparently forgotten. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


AFTER THE BATTLE 

Berry's absence from home on the morning of 
the battle of Shiloh made Mr. and Mrs. Arnold 
seriously anxious. The fact that Lily had also 
disappeared was of some comfort, however, for 
they knew the colored girl would do her best to 
protect and shield her young mistress from any 
danger. The position of the Arnolds’ cabin in 
the remote ravine was, fortunately, out of range 
of the guns, and the terrible encounters between 
the Confederate and Union forces were all sev- 
eral miles beyond the ridge that sheltered the 
cabin. But Sunday, with the echoing sound of 
guns, passed slowly by to the nearly frantic par- 
ents. To venture far from the cabin was not to 
be considered; and, added to their anxietj^ for 
Berry, was the fear of what might have befallen 
Mrs. Bragg and Mollie. But at the approach 
of night the sound of musketry ceased, the roar 
194 


AT SHILOH 


195 


of cannon died away for a time, and a heavy rain 
began to fall. But with darkness came a new 
sound: Union gunboats had come up the Ten- 
nessee River and began a steady fire upon the 
Confederates. Sleep was impossible, and when 
Monday morning came Mr. Arnold declared that 
he must go in search of Berry, and Mrs. Arnold 
determined to accompany him. But as they 
turned down the familiar trail, two miles from 
the cabin, to the brook, where Berry had met the 
spy, they could see the dense smoke from the 
guns rising in every direction; and down a 
near-by road a mass of Confederate soldiers in 
their gray uniforms dashed by. 

“ It is of no use to go any farther. We may 
be shot by stray bullets, or taken prisoners as 
‘ suspicious ’ strangers,” said Mr. Arnold. “ Pos- 
sibly some friendly officer has taken charge of 
Berry and Lily, and when the battle ends will 
send them safely home. All we can do is to re- 
turn to the cabin and wait! ” 

Mrs. Arnold sadly agreed, and they made their 
way home, wondering anxiously as to the course 
of the battle. 

“ If the Union army had any warning at all 
of the advance of the Confederates they may be 


196 


A YANKEE GIRL 


able to defend the Landing,” said Mr. Arnold, 
as they again reached the cabin. 

When Lily awakened on Sunday morning to 
the sound of echoing artillery, and when she dis- 
covered that Berry was not at home, she at once 
understood what had happened. 

“ Missie Berry’s at de Union camp!” she 
promptly decided, “ an’ I’se gwine dar ter tek 
keer ob her,” and Lily was off like the wind. But 
she found it no easy matter to reach her destina- 
tion. 

After she had left the rough ridge where the 
Arnolds’ cabin stood and made her way down the 
ravine she was instantly in the midst of moving 
masses of Confederates; and it took all her alert- 
ness and caution to avoid discovery. For hours 
she crouched in thickets, and once even marched 
steadily along with a division of soldiers who 
were driving Union soldiers back toward the 
Landing; and darkness had begun to gather be- 
fore the tired, frightened Lily reached the pla- 
teau above the Tennessee River, from where the 
thunder of guns held back the advancing Con- 
federates. 

Slowly and cautiously Lily crept along the 
embankment. Rain began to fall; darkness 


AT SHILOH 


197 


came; and the Confederates fell back; and the 
exhausted Lily crawled along and at last found 
herself near a tent. 

“ I reckon I’ll jes’ go in dar,” she thought, 
“ an’ wait til’ dis rain stops,” and, making no 
more noise than a woodland rabbit, Lily softly 
crept under the swinging flap of the tent. But, 
quietly as she had entered, ears as sharp as her 
own, and eyes accustomed to shadowy woodland 
ways, had discovered her. 

“Who’s there?” called a familiar voice; and 
Lily jumped to her feet and ran forward. 

“My lan’! Missie Berry!” she exclaimed. 
“Ain’ I de lucky nigger ter cum right to dis tent! 
I’se bin all day a-gettin’ har! ” 

“ Oh, Lily! ” For a moment Berry clung si- 
lently to the faithful girl who had braved every 
danger to reach her young mistress; and then 
quickly told the story of her discovery of the 
Confederates in Shiloh woods. “And now I 
want to go home. We’ll start this minute! ” she 
exclaimed eagerly. 

“ We cyan’t, Missie Berry! Dar’s milluns ob 
men a-fightin’ out dar! An’ lissen ter dat rain, 
Missie Berry! If we wusn’t killed by guns we’d 
be droun’d daid! We shu’ wu’d, Missie Berry. 


198 A YANKEE GIRL 

An’ yo’ ma and pa dey knows I’ll tek keer ob 
yo’,” Lily concluded, and Berry at last agreed 
not to attempt to start for home until the next 
morning. Lily curled up on the floor beside the 
cot where Berry lay; and, in spite of storm and 
the crashing sound of guns, the girls were soon 
fast asleep. 

On Monday Lily was awake at an early 
hour, and left the camp to skirmish for food. It 
was too serious a moment in the great battle for 
Colonel Peabody to remember the little Yankee 
girl in his tent, but Lily managed to secure a 
quantity of hard biscuit and refilled the water 
jug. “ We kin go home ter-night, I reckon,” 
she assured Berry, who was now rested and eager 
to leave the tent. 

Early that afternoon the sound of cheers 
echoed along the plateau, and Berry and Lily 
ventured to peer from the tent. A soldier rushed 
past them shouting: “ Beauregard’s men are re- 
treating. The Battle of Shiloh is over! ” 

“ Praise de Lawd!” said Lily; “ an’ I hopes 
dis ends de noise.” 

By four o’clock the last shot had been fired, 
and the Union generals found that in the two 
days’ battle 15,000 Union soldiers had been killed 


AT SHILOH 


199 


or taken prisoners by the enemy, while the Con- 
federate loss was not over 10,699 men. 

In spite of Berry’s pleading Lily resolutely re- 
fused to start for home until night. 

“’Tain’ safe, Missie Berry! Jes’ wait!” she 
insisted; and Berry at last agreed. 

It was six o’clock when the flap to the tent was 
drawn back and Colonel Peabody, his arm in a 
sling and a bandage about his head, stood smiling 
in the doorway. 

“ Thank heaven you are here, and safe!” he 
exclaimed, as Berry started toward him; and 
then, discovering Lily, dressed in Francis’s old 
clothes, added, “ Where did this boy come 
from? ” 

“ From my home; it’s Lily! ” Berry explained. 
“ She’s going to take me home! ” 

The officer looked puzzled, but asked no 
further question in regard to Lily; and a mo- 
ment later a soldier appeared with a pitcher of 
hot coffee, a plate of fried eggs and bacon, and 
another of biscuit. ITe set the food on a rough 
table and Colonel Peabody at once drew a stool 
toward it. He had hardly tasted food since the 
beginning of the battle, but he did not forget his 
visitors, and Berry was told to sit beside him, 


200 


A YANKEE GIRL 


while Lily was given a liberal share. They were 
all too hungry to talk until they had satisfied 
their hunger, and Colonel Peabody was the first 
to speak. 

“ Now, little Yankee girl, tell me your name, 
or, better still, write it down for me. You will 
find some paper and a pencil in that box,” and 
he pointed toward a wooden box at the head of 
the cot. 

“ Write your father’s name also,” he added, as 
Berry began to write. 

“ My brother Francis is a Union soldier. He’s 
a Corporal!” Berry proudly announced, as she 
handed Colonel Peabody the paper on which she 
had written her own name and that of her father. 

“ Well, I think you should be a General! ” de- 
clared the officer. “So your name is Berenice 
Arnold ! ” said Colonel Peabody, and in a 
thoughtful tone he repeated: “ Berenice Arnold, 
the little Yankee girl of Shiloh,” and then added: 
“ If you had not reached us when you did with 
your warning of the advancing Confederates this 
camp would surely have been captured. General 
Grant will thank you himself.” 

“ Missie Berry, I reckons we better be 
startin’,” whispered Lily, and, before Berry 


AT SHILOH 201 

could respond. Colonel Peabody rose to his feet 
and said: 

“ Before you go, Berenice, I must take you to 
the hero of the day, General William T. Sher- 
man. His efforts led us to victory,” and resting 
his hand on Berry’s shoulder the wounded officer 
moved toward the door of the tent, with Lily 
close at his heels. 

The Union generals were gathered in a tent 
near by discussing the fortunes of the day. Gen- 
eral Rousseau, whose brigade had swept every- 
thing before it; General McCook and Critten- 
den, who, against tremendous odds, had held their 
stand at Shiloh church, and General Buell, whose 
arrival had given victory to the Union forces, 
were all gathered about General Sherman as 
Colonel Peabody with his two odd companions 
appeared in the open doorway of the tent. Very 
briefly he told the story of Berry’s flight through 
the forest on the night before the Battle of Shi- 
loh to bring the news of the stealthy advance of 
the enemy, and with a gentle push sent Berry to- 
ward the black- whiskered, grave-faced General 
whose keen eyes softened as they rested on the 
slender little figure; and, as he clasped Berry’s 
hand and smiled down upon her, Berry wished 


202 


A YANKEE GIRL 


with all her heart that there was some greater 
service she could do for the man who had that 
day won an undying fame. 

Later on, when Berry attempted to repeat to 
her father and mother what General Sherman 
had said to her, she found that all she could re- 
member was that he had called her “ a brave lit- 
tle Yankee girl,” and, when Colonel Peabody 
summoned a tall young soldier to go to the out- 
skirts of the camp with the girls, that each one 
of the great generals had clasped her hand and 
smiled upon her and repeated General Sherman’s 
words. 

The late April twilight had begun to fade 
when Mr. and Mrs. Arnold from their seats on 
the cabin porch heard the sound of a clear whistle, 
three times repeated, Berry’s signal, and started 
to their feet to see Berry, with Lily close behind 
her, running toward the cabin. And when the 
little girl told the story of her night watch in 
Shiloh woods, her journey to the Union camp, 
and all that had so quickly followed, her mother 
and father listened in amazement. There was 
no word of blame for the girl who had been in- 
tent only on being of service to the cause for 
which her brother was fighting. 


AT SHILOH 


203 


“We have two soldiers in the family !” her 
father declared proudly, as she finished the story 
of her adventures. 

“ I tole Missie Berry yo’d know I’d tek keer 
ob her,” said the smiling Lily, as Mrs. Arnold 
said to the faithful girl that she had been sure 
Lily had followed her young mistress. 

“ Len Bragg is at home,” said Mr. Arnold; 
“ he was wounded, but not seriously, in the fight 
along Corinth road, and carried to the cabin. I 
have just returned from there, and must go down 
again to-morrow morning.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


GENERAL GRANT 

The sunny April days brought many blossoms 
along the Tennessee ravines near Shiloh; trillium 
and butterwort, arbutus and violets were to be 
found, and masses of dogwood bloomed along 
the slopes, where only a few weeks earlier the 
fierce Battle of Shiloh had raged. The Union 
fleet had moved down the Tennessee; Beaure- 
gard, convinced that the campaign was lost, was 
about to leave Corinth in the possession of 
Grant's army, and it was felt that the Union 
cause would soon triumph. 

In the Arnolds' cabin the little household had 
returned to the peaceful occupations of the days 
before the two armies had come so near to them. 
Berry’s garden flourished; Lily was becoming a 
well-trained servant, and Mr. Arnold was rapidly 
gaining strength. Within two weeks after 
Beauregard’s defeat Steve Bragg had appeared 
at his cabin, and was as warmly welcomed as if 
he had been a brave soldier returned from war. 

204 


AT SHILOH 


20 5 


It was soon evident, however, that a change had 
come over Mr. Bragg, for he at once began to 
work steadily. He enlarged the garden ; cut logs 
with which he built a shelter for the calf that Mr. 
Arnold gave him ; made repairs on the old cabin, 
and was so praised by his wife and children for 
his industry that he firmly resolved that in the 
future no one should ever again truthfully speak 
of him as “ Shiftless Steve.” When he looked at 
his wounded soldier son Mr. Bragg also made 
many other excellent resolves. 

It was late in May when Mr. Arnold made his 
first trip since the preceding autumn to Corinth, 
and brought back the long-hoped-for letter from 
Francis, who was with the Union forces in Vir- 
ginia, and wrote that he was well. But it seemed 
to Berry that her father had other good news; 
he smiled so often, she noticed, and Berry had 
been quick to see that, whatever it was, her 
mother was in the secret. 

“ Maybe it is about going back to Vermont 
this summer,” she decided, for Berry knew that 
her father and mother were both hopeful that a 
return to their New England home might soon 
be possible, and when Mrs. Arnold announced 
that she was going to have a party, Berry was 


206 A YANKEE GIRL 

convinced that she was right in her conclu- 
sions. 

“ Of course ‘ a party 9 means that we are to 
have the Bragg family to dinner,” said Berry. 
But Mrs. Arnold shook her head smilingly. 

“ That’s not what this party means. Although 
Len is so much better that we will ask them all 
to come up on next Sunday. This party is a 
surprise! ” she responded. 

“ Tell me, Mother! Oh! Please tell me!” 
urged Berry, but Mrs. Arnold laughingly re- 
fused. 

“No, my dear! Not until the very day comes. 
And then you are to wear your white muslin 
dress. I will let out the tucks and the seams so 
it will do, and your Roman sash, and be a real 
little Yankee girl. And Lily shall have a dress 
and a white apron and cap. And I shall wear 
my gray tibet dress, and your father will wear a 
white collar! Yes, indeed! It is to be a great 
occasion! ” and Mrs. Arnold laughed again, as if 
her secret was one that meant a great pleasure 
near at hand. 

So Berry was greatly puzzled, and she and Lily 
waited expectantly for the day to come when they 
would be told to discard knickerbockers and 


AT SHILOH 


207 


blouses and put on the dresses that were ready 
for them, and on the morning of June first, Berry 
awoke to find her mother taking the white muslin 
dress from the closet. 

“Oh, Mother! Is to-day the party? ” ex- 
claimed the little girl, springing out of bed. 
“And who is it, Mother? Who is coming? You 
said you would tell me when the day came!” 
And Berry seized her mother’s arm and looked 
pleadingly up at her mother’s smiling face. 

“ Yes; as soon as you are dressed, dear! ” re- 
sponded Mrs. Arnold. “ Put on your white 
stockings and slippers, and make these short curls 
as neat as you can!” and she touched Berry’s 
brown hair, and left the room. 

“ Oh! How can I wait! ” thought Berry im- 
patiently as she hurried to dress. “ If I was in 
Vermont I should think it was either the minis- 
ter, or Aunt Melvina coming to visit,” she de- 
cided, as she vigorously brushed her brown curls. 

When Berry reached the kitchen she exclaimed 
in amazement, for the table was spread for six 
people. Its coarse cover was white as snow, and 
the blue of the dishes, the glass dish filled with 
wild strawberries, and the white bowl filled with 
violets, gave it a very festive air. Lily, in a blue 


208 A YANKEE GIRL 

dress, and wearing a white cap and apron, was 
busy at the stove, and Mrs. Arnold was just cut- 
ting out a pan of rolls, while Berry’s father, 
“ dressed for church,” as the little girl exclaimed, 
stood in the open doorway over which hung the 
American flag. 

“ Who is it? Who is it that is coming? I 
should think it was General Grant himself! ” ex- 
claimed Berry as she ran toward her father. 

Before Mrs. Arnold could speak and fulfil 
her promise there was the sound of hoofs, the 
jangle of harness, and Mr. Arnold ran down the 
path. Berry was close behind him, but she sud- 
denly stopped short. 

“It’s Colonel Peabody!” she exclaimed, and 
then noticed a bearded man, mounted on a fine 
gray horse, whom her father was eagerly welcom- 
ing. Behind these two officers rode the young 
soldier, whom Berry instantly remembered as the 
one who had guided Lily and herself from the 
camp at Pittsburg Landing. 

The two officers dismounted, and the young 
soldier took charge of their Horses. 

Berry stood on the path not knowing quite 
what to do, but Colonel Peabody came to meet 
her, and in a moment Berry was being led toward 




“here IS THE LITTLE MESSENGER OF WHOM I TOLD YOU.” 



AT SHILOH 


209 


that quiet, unimposing, and unostentatious of- 
ficer, Brigadier- General U. S. Grant; whom, in 
1862, neither public opinion, nor his own thought, 
had marked out for the mighty achievements be- 
fore him. 

As Berry heard Colonel Peabody say: “ Gen- 
eral Grant, here is the little messenger of whom 
I told you, the Yankee girl of Shiloh !” she 
looked up to meet the steady, friendly glance of 
the grave eyes of the great General of the Civil 
War, and it was Berry who walked beside him to 
the cabin door, and who sat at his right hand at 
that simple breakfast party where the war-worn 
soldiers feasted on hot rolls and coffee, and 
praised the broiled chicken and hominy that Mrs. 
Arnold and Lily had so carefully prepared. 

The visit was a brief one; within an hour the 
“ party ” was over, and General Grant and his 
companions were again on horseback. As Berry 
bade them good-bye General Grant rested 
his hand lightly on the curly head, and said 
gravely: 

“ Good-bye, Berenice. Be sure I shall not for- 
get you,” and Berry smiled up at the serious face 
and responded: 

“ I wish I were a soldier, like my brother 


210 A YANKEE GIRL 

Francis, and could fight in your army, General 
Grant.” 

After the last sound of the horses’ feet had 
died away, and Berry had ceased to exclaim over 
the “ surprise,” Mr. Arnold told the little girl 
more fully of the great honor that had befallen 
her. 

“ General Grant’s visit was wholly for you, 
Berry,” he said soberly. “ Colonel Peabody told 
me of the plan on the day of my visit to Corinth. 
And you must not forget the honor of such a 
visit.” 

Berry nodded silently. Her thoughts drifted 
back to the night when in Shiloh woods she 
crouched listening to the words of the Confeder- 
ate generals planning their attack on Grant’s 
army. 

“ I never can forget it,” she responded, and 
added quickly: “Nor the Battle of Shiloh, Fa- 
ther! Or anything that has happened this win- 
ter. But I do wish we could go home to Ver- 
mont.” 

“ Well, my dear, that is just what we are going 
to do. General Grant has given us passes 
through the Union lines, and within a few weeks 
we will start,” replied Mr. Arnold smilingly. 


211 


AT SHILOH 

“ Oh, Lor’ ! W’ot’s gwine ter become ob me? ” 
wailed a smothered voice close at hand, and 
Berry turned to find Lily, with her apron 
thrown over her head, swaying back and forth on 
the path. 

“ You will go with us, of course! ” Berry de- 
clared, and Mr. Arnold promptly repeated her 
words: “ 4 Of course,’” and instantly Lily was 
smiling radiantly. 

But Mollie Bragg heard the news of Berry’s 
departure with a sad heart. Not even the gifts 
that the Arnolds bestowed on Mollie’s mother 
could comfort the little mountain girl for the 
loss of the only playmate she had ever known. 
The only comfort for Mollie was the fact that 
Berry promised to write to her, from far-off Ver- 
mont. 

“ And you can write to me, Mollie,” Berry 
reminded her, and at this a smile crept over the 
little girl’s face. 

“ Yes, I kin,” she responded proudly. “ Len 
says I’m a right smart writer.” 

“ And sometime I’ll come back and see you,” 
Berry promised. 

Mollie’s pale eyes brightened. “Oh, Berry! 
I hopes you will come back,” she said eagerly. 


212 


A YANKEE GIRL 


“ Promise you will.” And again Berry prom- 
ised. But it was many years before the little 
Yankee girl visited the cabin on the ridge beyond 
the battlefield of Shiloh, and fulfilled the promise 
to the little mountain girl. 


The Stories in this Series are : 

A YANKEE GIRL AT FORT SUMTER 
A YANKEE GIRL AT BULL RUN 
A YANKEE GIRL AT SHILOH 
A YANKEE GIRL AT GETTYSBURG (in press) 


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